


Hunter Hunted

by GhostNobody



Category: Alien vs Predator (2004)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 02:58:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 45
Words: 218,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8604466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostNobody/pseuds/GhostNobody
Summary: This is going to be a tale romance and adventure between a human male and a female Yaujta that takes place on a distant planet, both their fates entwine and they find out that sometimes not only do opposites attract but together they're stronger. *Warning will contain heavy sexual content between a male human and a female Yaujta*





	1. Worlds Apart

**Author's Note:**

> This will be my first dip into the AVP fan fic world, but I have been meaning to do this for a while as I am a massive fan of everything Alien and Predator, this is going to draw on things from both worlds, it will have action, adventure and romance and yes it will contain heavy sexual content involving a male human and a female Yaujta, if that’s not your cup of tea then kindly move along there’s nothing to see here, for everyone still with me, this will not a be a quick they jump on each other and fuck story, it’s going to be a long haul people so I hope you guys enjoy the ride.  
> Disclaimer- I do not own anything related to AVP (Wish I did) the only things that are mine are the OC's and the things the voices in my head make me make them do, now on with our show, I bid you welcome to.......

Every impact on the rain-forest floor sent a mini explosion of mud, water and leaves flying in every direction, they also left quite a substantial print in the soft muddy ground. The wet splashing noise of the rain echoed off the giant trees that flanked the narrow path on both sides, it was so loud that the sounds drowned out her ragged gasping breaths as she ran full tilt down the narrow water logged path.  
Cursing herself for her foolish mistake, Tik eleth took a sharp right turn on the path and hurdled a fallen rotten tree without even breaking her pace, this was the third time this month she'd let the bastards get so close. Even now as she ran and the blood pounded in her head she could still hear them charging through the trees and on the ground in their relentless pursuit of her. A sudden blood curdling roar from her right side tore through the tranquil sounds of the rain forest, Tik eleth smiled to herself fleetingly as she recognized the obvious sound of extreme pain and instantly knew that one of her pursuers had fallen into one of her carefully set traps, their relentlessness had its price it seemed and before she was done she vowed that she would make every one of those honourless bad blood scum pay in full.  
Meanwhile worlds away in another rain forest all is still and calm. On a hilltop a silent observer watches, waiting patiently for his prey to emerge from their lair. Slowly he arched his back temporarily relieving the building pressure in his aching muscles, having been laid prone on this hill for two days straight was taking its toll on his body.   
For what felt like the millionth time that hour he brought his cheek to the stock pad of his rifle and peered through the high powered scope. All was still in the highly camouflaged compound that he had been observing, the six long rickety looking metal huts were silent and the long plastic tables in the small yard outside were deserted, it was so early that not even the slave workers had been roused by the lazily patrolling guards yet.   
The massive rain-forest was littered with production facilities just like this one, camps where cocaine was cut and prepared for shipping to various countries around the world, to be consumed by the rich and powerful at their exclusive parties, or by teenage clubbers looking to rave the night and their lives away.   
This camp was nothing special, the slave labor workers who were forced at gunpoint to process and cut the raw coca were no-one special, but what was special, what warranted his presence and his continued observation was the presence of one man, one Juliano Martinez, the one man who controlled it all.  
Juliano Martinez was one of the most powerful cartel bosses in all of South America, according to all sources a very quiet, unassuming and very polite man to meet, but to cross him was a death sentence and not of the quick and painless verity either. Usually he ran his empire from the shadows and preferred to stay out of the limelight unlike many of his competitors, his intense paranoia made him a very difficult man to pin down as he had an insufferable habit of moving around like a pin ball, never staying in the same location more than two nights in a row. This made making any kind of move against him extremely difficult, as drawing a bead on him was like trying to catch smoke with a net.  
But finally with a potent mixture of bribes, threats and blackmail his travel schedule had been revealed, now allowing the situation slowly unfolding on this remote South American hillside to come to pass. 

Flexing his trigger finger and slowly pumping the blood back into it Jack sighed as the feeling slowly returned, he hated slow stake outs like this one, he thought that getting out of the military would have freed him from all the tediousness. But since he’d left the British military as one of its most decorated special forces snipers and joined the private sector, all he seemed to have found himself doing was camping out in some of the world’s worst shit holes watching for just the right moment to present itself, speaking of which it looked like the camp was starting to come to life.

 

After two hours of solid running her body was starting to really feel the burn, weaving left she took yet another twist in the game trails that crisscrossed the forest, hopefully it would slow her pursuers down just enough to allow her to catch her breath, but she knew in her guts that that was wishful thinking and at this stage that sort of thing would get her killed. Breaking her stride slightly to leap into the air she effortlessly cleared yet another of her carefully prepared traps, the spike pit was crude but effective if it went unnoticed, which given her pursuers was a rather large if.   
Only a minute after she had cleared the spike pit she heard the tell-tale sound of the camouflage collapse and the howl of rage and pain that indicated the crude trap had indeed been successful in its job, but now was not the time to celebrate the loss of yet another of their number, the fact that it was sprung only a minute after she had cleared it meant that they had closed the gap between them substantially, but from what she knew of their hunting tactics they always came in threes or fours, so that meant that there was either one or at worst two now left pursing her, but she didn't have to ponder this point for long for as she rounded a large tree that marked a turn in the trail, there stood right in front of her blocking the trail was one rather large bad blood male.

Sliding to a very forceful stop on the wet muddy ground Tik eleth looked at the large bad blood blocking her path, he wore dull black plate armor that was pocked with marks and gouges from a variety of weapon strikes on his broad chest, his skin appeared a dull muddy tan and black color from what she could see under the many inter-locking plates that he had covered himself in, so much so that he sort of looked like a walking tank.   
Tik eleth clicked her mandibles in annoyance at this, it was typical bad blood behavior seeking to hold a vastly unfair advantage over their prey rather than choosing to fight fairly and with honour, a point further made by the twin shoulder mounted plasma casters that were now whirring into life on his shoulders. His black armor was also adorned with various trophies of his many hunts, but Tik eleth noted that while many hunters even those of her own clan did this there was something different here, while she was used to seeing skulls or large bones of mighty beasts and worthy opponents that were worth honoring for their fight and sacrifice, the ones this male had were all rather small pieces showing that he was taking a vast amount of undue pride in killing quarry a lot smaller than himself.   
"A most satisfying run you have given me Shadow Claw whore, more than enough to get my blood pumping nicely, a shame about my brothers back there but it will make my forcing your submission all the more delicious, I shall make you scream my name to the heavens before I grant you the death you have so richly earned" the bad blood male growled in an arrogant tone, the mere thought of this bad blood male disgusted Tik eleth to the pit of her stomach, the notion of being defiled by such a pitiful excuse of a male nearly made her vomit, the simple thought of him forcing himself inside her body and tearing away the honour she had held to bestow upon the male that she herself would choose and whom would in turn have chosen her made her feel physically ill.   
Tik eleth vowed right at that very second that she would take her own life before she let him take any form of sick pleasure from her body, also if she should emerge victorious here she would slowly remove the one thing this male held dear and feed it to him before allowing him to die.   
Slowly she withdrew two daggers from their scabbards fastened at her rear just above her hips, they were made from the long destroyed remains of her wrist blade, the strong black metal which was the symbol of her proud clan glinted in the light filtering between the canopy as she deftly flicked them with her battle honed hands, she would never let this male defile her honour, never.  
"Tell you what Shadow Claw whore, If you agree to put those butter knives down and just submit I may even let you enjoy some small part of it"  
The male said with a chuckling click of his mandibles behind his hunting mask, Tik eleth found herself glad that she could not see his face, he was revolting enough as it was without knowing that right at this second his eyes were roaming over her body drinking in her curves and feminine form imaging what he was going to do to her, it made her skin crawl,   
"I will die before I submit to the likes of you honourless worm" Tik eleth spat at him her voice dripping with venom, the male laughed loudly,   
"Oh don't worry you're going to die alright, when I choke the very life out of you with my cock jammed down your throat" the male snarled,   
"I doubt you could choke a kineth gnat with something that small" Tik eleth said with a dark smile on her mandibles.   
The scathing blow to his pride caused the male to roar loudly, both his plasma casters spinning to lock onto her, it was time to work.  
Tik eleth dove right into a graceful roll easily dodging both bolts from the casters which hit nothing but air and dirt kicking up huge plumed clouds where they struck, she righted herself in an instant before sprinting full tilt towards the male mandibles drawn back in a vicious snarl and her daggers raised intent to kill.

 

Slow breath in, hold it, exhale slowly, Jack repeated this process over and over to fully oxygenate his blood. He counted the slow rhythmic beats of his heart keeping it in check, he traced his finger over the trigger of his rifle feeling each small ridge of the anti-slip grip below the sensitive skin of his finger tip, he slowly tested the pressure of the trigger feeling the slack come off and the bite at just the right place, slow breath in, hold it, squeeze the trigger.  
The large .50 caliber rifle boomed like a man portable thunder clap, through his scope at a distance of just over a mile away emerging from a hut into the morning sunlight, he saw the face of Juliano Martinez, a face whose picture had been burned into his mind, dissolve into a cloud of pink mist speckled with white chunks as the massive steel cord bullet split it apart like a watermelon.  
The reaction of Juliano's six bodyguards was instantaneous, they dropped into cover around the long metal hut that Juliano had just emerged from, through his scope Jack could see them scanning the tree lines with their rifles in every direction trying to work out where the shot had come from.  
The difference between the body guards and the camp guards was obvious, whereas the bodyguards moved with obvious military discipline, the camp guards began spraying bullets in every direction indiscriminately, as much as every instinct in Jack's body screamed at him to move he remained as still as a stone, he heard the hissing whizz of various rounds passing over his head along with the odd thud of one striking a tree, but he knew that if he moved he would draw bullets like a 6'2 bush shaped magnet, so stationary he remained watching and waiting.  
It took the bodyguards a total of fifteen minutes to gain control of the guards and to get them to cease their firing into the forest randomly, but once they did they got them organized into teams and they began to fan out and search for him, he took this opportunity to inch his way back away from the edge of the cliff he’d been stationed on atop the hill, as he dropped down below the ridge line and out of the sight line of the camp he finally rose from his prone position and into a kneel, he would have loved to have taken the time to stretch out his aching and sore muscles , but as it was he didn't have any time to waste, he needed to bug out of the area as fast as was safe to do.   
Firstly, Jack retrieved a large sturdy looking camo bag that he’d stashed in a large bush just below the ridge line, opening it he retrieved a heavily modified and suppressed M4 stowed inside it and swapped it with the big .50 before closing it up and hoisting it onto his shoulder, weapon switched it was now it was time to bug out.  
Moving rapidly but with care to minimize his sign Jack made his way off the hill and down to the forest floor, he had a lot of ground to cover as his extraction was about fifteen miles as the crow flies from here, but he was not a crow and down on the ground in-between him and the point where he’d left his vehicle was a rather large river and numerous smaller obstacles that would slow him down, but right now his main concern was to stay ahead of the hunter force that would be scouring the area for him.   
Jack took his bearings from his small GPS system and set off following a reverse course of way-points that he’d set on the system on the way here, but little did he know that his every movement was currently being tracked by a far more worrying opponent than the hunter force that was currently scouring the forest surrounding their camp moving steadily outwards.   
This new player watched Jack with a keen interest from his hide in a large tree overlooking the valley in which Jack now walked, his thermal vision easily picked out the heavily camouflaged sniper against the background, slowly he moved a large clawed hand and tapped a wrist mounted computer which caused it to flip open, with a few simple commands entered he closed it and moved off stalking his prey from the tree tops, effortlessly jumping from branch to branch making sure to stay back just far enough to remain out of Jack’s earshot.

In the rain forest night falls rapidly and rather suddenly, it wasn't long before Jack found himself having to resort to using his night vision goggles to see more than a few inches in front of him, he hated using these things as they made a rather annoying high pitched whine noise when activated, it was kinda like having a seriously pissed off mosquito in a jar strapped to your forehead, also it could give your presence away to a sharp eared enemy, but it was either that or stumble around blindly in a rather difficult to manage terrain, best case there he ended up in a huge wait a while bush, worst case a human shaped bag of crisps falling down a ravine.

As he moved Jack kept feeling an unusual itch on the back of his neck, it was like he was being observed, but every time he stopped and turned a full circle there was nothing there, well until there was something.   
As he moved a strange ripple in a large tree ahead of him caught his attention, stopping he trained his weapon on the area where he’d seen it and swept it, the infrared laser mounted under the barrel of the M4 showed as a long beam emanating from the gun as it moved, invisible to the naked eye but perfectly visible through the goggles on Jack’s head.   
He swept it over the tree curiously searching for what had caused the strange ripple effect, he held his breath as he moved the beam into position and as he swept it over a large branch about a third of the way up the large tree the laser beam suddenly seemed to bend off to the right for no reason, he moved it away and then back again and the same thing happened, he was about to take proper aim on the spot when he felt an impact in his right shoulder, looking down he saw what looked like a large black dart sticking out of his shoulder, just as his brain had time to process this new development his limbs seemed to turn to mush and he collapsed to the ground in a heap still holding his rifle.   
Struggle as he might his limbs flat out refused to co-operate, whatever was currently being pumped into him was powerful, he felt liquid cold spreading through his veins like rivers of ice, it headed from his limbs into the very core of his body to the point where every beat of his heart felt cold, even his neck felt like it was made of jelly and refused to support his heavy rapidly chilling head.   
He couldn't even turn to look around himself, not that he really needed to, for in that spot where his laser beam had bent something appeared out of thin air creating a cascading sparkle effect of electricity as it dissipated, it jumped down from the tree with surprisingly little noise considering its size, it was huge standing about nearly eight-foot-tall as it rose to its full height, his night vision goggles were having problems processing the image as whatever was all over it seemed to scatter light, so instead of having a foe to face he was presented with a moving silhouette as it walked slowly towards him, just as the fear and dread of his utterly hopeless situation began to set in and he looked up at the huge dark shape that now loomed over him the world went black.


	2. Just Another Day In Paradise

The blade glanced off metal making a shower of sparks as Tik eleth struck to the bad blood’s side, he roared in frustration and swung one of his large arms in a wide arc which connected with her side, the blow sent Tik eleth sprawling backwards into the mud of the forest floor with a heavy thud, the impact caused her mandibles to snap together sending a flash of pain through her face like a flash of light, immediately her highly honed instincts told her to roll to one side and she chose left.  
Just as she completed the roll there was a sticky sounding thud from behind her, glancing back she saw the male had driven his large spear into the ground where only milliseconds ago she’d occupied, he roared in frustration again, Tik eleth knew that as poor an excuse for a male as he was she was not going to be able to match him for strength, she was going to have to rely on her wits and her speed to win this one.  
Quickly she rolled again this time using the momentum to spring up onto her feet and immediately dashed right, she could see his plasma casters swiveling to acquire her now rapidly moving form, one was swiveling left while the other was going right and if she carried this course they would trap her in the middle, changing track she slid into a swift but rather graceful swing, now moving towards the surprised male who was turning to face her having just freed his spear staff from the mud, as she sprinted she dipped low at just the right time causing the twin fizzing plasma bolts to sail right over her back, on her high speed approach she noticed a potential opening and swung for it with her blades, one glanced harmlessly off his armor but the other connected sending a jet of glowing blood onto the muddy forest floor.

The male roared in pain as Tik eleth’s blade sliced effortlessly through the flesh of his right leg, he struggled to remain balanced as the wound weakened his right leg, sensing a second opening emerging in his shaky balance Tik eleth again changed direction from her circular sprint and again charged right at the male, this time he saw her coming and swiped at her with his now fully extended wrist blades, but as he saw his blades about to connect with the side of her head she disappeared in front of his eyes, before his brain was able to process this a sharp pain shot the entire length of his left arm causing it to fall limply to his side, glancing down in confusion he saw the entire right side of his armor was now painted with glowing blood, his glowing blood,  
Somehow she’d not only managed to duck below his blow but had sliced through the tendons directly under his arm in the weak spot of his arm pit with one of those daggers.

Tik eleth spun on her heels to face the male, the entire left side of his body was near enough crippled from the two precision blows that she’d delivered, his arm hung limply at his side and his leg was coiled up as he was balancing on his toes placing his weight on his other foot, “Shadow claw WHORE!!!!! I will drown you in your own blood! , I will fuck your skull as I polish it to hang on my wall!!!” he roared at her,  
Tik eleth simply clicked her mandibles in annoyance at him, but her confidence nearly cost her greatly as in the last second she noticed that his plasma casters had locked onto her.

Diving forwards throwing herself to the ground she felt the heat of one of the bolts as it screamed past her head, the other one was a bit lower somehow the male had anticipated her dive direction and the bolt slammed into the top of her shoulder sending a searing pain through her left side, the impact broke her dive and sent her flying backwards slamming her into the trunk of a rather large tree with a jarring thud, Tik eleth’s head sagged as it swam with a whirlpool of pain, frustration and a little fear.  
Giving herself a mental slap she forced herself to roll away from the tree trunk, once again her instincts proved spot on as milliseconds later it was impacted by two plasma bolts in exactly the spot where she’d been sat. 

Quickly pushing herself into a second roll she was able to regain her footing and started moving again, she dared not look down at the wound that her shoulder had received, she knew it was bad as not many took a direct hit from a plasma caster and lived to tell the tale, so the fact that it had just clipped her shoulder was a blessing and if she could still move then she could still fight, using the adrenaline rush that the pain and the fear had brought on Tik eleth sprinted towards the male, she needed to close the gap so that he couldn't use those fucking plasma casters, and so that her daggers would be effective.  
Moving around to the male’s crippled side she pivoted in at full speed, he roared at the top his lungs as he saw her coming and whirled his spear staff at her trying to catch her legs with its razor sharp edges, with high speed precision Tik eleth dodged over it and in the instant she did she spotted an opening, the male whirled the staff at her again in another sweeping arc and as he did Tik eleth dove over it into a forward roll popping up right next to the male, his surprise was evident even though she couldn't see his face through the hunting mask, with all her speed and strength Tik eleth plunged the long jagged blade of her dagger straight through the gap in between his chest armor and the hunting mask.  
A jet of bright green blood sprayed from the massive wound in the male’s neck as Tik eleth tore the blade from his neck, dropping his spear the male grabbed at his mortally wounded throat with his working hand as jets of blood sprayed between his massive fingers, he spun in a full circle like a lazy drunk trying to find his footing before falling to his knees in the mud. 

Rising to her full height of 6ft 10 inches Tik eleth turned to face the stricken male who was now on his knees, to her amazement he began to laugh,  
“You may have bested me Shadow Claw whore but my brothers will come and one way or another they will end you!!, you’ll never leave this planet except maybe with your head mounted to a fucking wall!!” he spat through gurgling breaths,  
Tik eleth looked at the stricken male with triumph in her eyes, slowly she approached him with her dagger held to her side now determined to cut his head from his body,  
“My name is Tik eleth of the Shadow Clan, daughter of Mak tesha, for four seasons you and the festering bile that you call clan have kept me here in this cess pool you call a preserve, for four seasons you have hunted me like prey and for four seasons I have bested the pauks that you have sent against me, but now with your death I will finally be free of you, I will leave this place and once I find my brothers and sisters we will hunt the bile you call clan down and exterminate your filth from the stars” she said in a calm voice,  
the male chuckled again through gurgled coughs each spraying more blood from his neck,  
“Oh? And how is my death going to help you do that whore?” he asked sounding quite amused, but she could tell he was fading rather quickly,  
“Simple I’m taking your drop ship” she replied with a defiant smile,  
now his chuckles turned into a full on roar of laugher, Tik eleth’s brow furrowed in anger and confusion, here he was dying in the mud like coward and he was laughing?  
“That’s what you think whore, you’ll never leave this place, never!!!!” he bellowed and with that the last of his strength faded and his hand dropped from his throat, swiftly followed by his head which now sagged forwards onto his chest.  
Looking at the dead bad blood male Tik eleth couldn't help but wonder what he’d meant by that, but as it turned out she didn't have to wait long or an answer, the computer on his wrist blade started issuing a shrill beeping noise and she knew exactly what that meant, instantly she turned on her heals and started sprinting full tilt into the forest as fast as her legs would carry her, she had barely enough time to dive into the cover of a rock hollow before a crashing boom echoed through the trees behind her and blue light and heat washed over her.

Coughing violently Tik eleth poked her head up out of the hollow that saved her life from the self-destruct blast, her movement sent a small cloud of ash into the air around her as she looked around,  
“Should have seen that coming” she scolded herself as she climbed out of the hollow dusting herself off,  
as she hit her left shoulder a jolt of pain reminded her of the injury there, now daring to look at it she saw that the plasma bolt had drilled a neat hole through the very top of her shoulder and burned all the tissue surrounding it, but fortunately it had also cauterized it so bleeding wouldn't be an issue for her, but it was going to leave one hell of a scar there, not that she minded, battle scars were marks of honor for her clan, reminders of foes bested and battles won to be worn with honor.  
Just as she finished inspecting the damage to her shoulder she heard a distant sound that sounded like a thunderclap, flinching she turned and looked off in the direction of the noise, instantly she saw a huge column of smoke and fire rising out of the canopy, for a second she was confused as to what had caused it, but then what the bad blood had said rang in her head and she instantly realized what it was,  
“PAUK!!!” she roared at the top of her now enraged voice in the direction of the now smoking remains of the bad blood’s drop ship, it seems that his wrist computer had been linked to his ship’s computer, so when his life signs ended and the computer detonated erasing him from existence his ship and therefore her only way off this blasted rock had gone the same way, up in a cloud of pauking smoke.

 

Knowing full well that Yaujta self-destruct systems leave no trace behind Tik eleth decided it would be a giant waste of her time to search the area for anything useful as it would have been vaporized, she figured it might be worth looking for the bodies of his two dead hunting partners as they might have something useful on them, she couldn't remember hearing any other self-destructs going off after they fell into her traps, so slowly she limped off in the direction she’d come to reach this place.  
Retracing her steps through the rain-forest she eventually came to where the second bad blood hunter had fallen into her spike pit, his mangled body lay at an odd twisted angle with four huge wooden spikes impaling him through the chest and legs.  
The spikes were totally covered in green glowing blood where they’d impaled him and he’d slid right down them to the bottom, it looked like he’d died so quick had hadn't been able to activate any of his safety measures. A smile crossed Tik eleth’s mandibles as she saw his full weapon pack totally intact right next to him on the ground , it was going to be an awkward climb with her shoulder in this current state but the reward would be worth it, this was the first time she’d managed to take one of these pauks out leaving their remains behind, they usually set their self-destructs in advance and tied them into their life signs like their hunt leader had, but the two that fell into the traps must have been young bloods that went rogue on their trials and fell in with this bad blood clan, their lack of experience was obvious to any blooded hunter given that they’d fallen so easily into these rudimentary traps.  
So carefully she looked for hand and foot holds in the ground vines to aid her descent into the pit she’d dug, so also used her formidable claws on both her hands and feet digging them into the soft earth of the pit wall to gain extra grip, gingerly picked her way down to the bottom. 

She managed it with very little problem, the worst of it came from her wounded shoulder causing extreme pain every time she put too much weight on it, but finally she reached the bottom and hugged the wall, now she had to be very careful of these spikes as she’d laced them with a particularly nasty poison made from some of the local plants that she’d discovered just after becoming stranded here. Carefully she picked her way over to the body of the fallen bad blood, his weapon pack had become dislodged from his body on impact with the spikes and was on the floor right next to her left foot, slowly kneeling down she used her good hand to retrieve it and pull it to her, the weight on it indicated that he was traveling light which was unusual for a bad blood, they usually vastly overcompensated in the firepower department, but at this point only having her twin daggers to rely on any extra weapon was a massive boon. 

Opening the dark metal satchel Tik eleth looked inside hopefully, fishing around inside there appeared to be two chakt-ra discs, a couple of explosive trip mines and a short sword.  
Tik eleth scoffed at this,  
“What kind of hunter keeps their weapons in a bag when chasing their prey?” she said aloud looking at the body of the fallen bad blood with disgust at his total lack of not only skill but respect for his prey.  
Taking the weapons from the bag she clipped them to the remains of her armor, it had taken a serious beating over the last four seasons on this planet, if it wasn't from the local beasts it was from the cursed bad bloods, she wore a dark grey chest piece that stopped just above her midriff, it had her clan emblem engraved into right shoulder which was just as well as the left shoulder now had a neat hole drilled through it along with her shoulder, though she was glad to have it as without its protection the plasma bolt would have blown her shoulder and arm clean off. 

Tik eleth clipped the sword to her back directly behind her head for ease of retrieval, all Yaujta weapons had magnetic clips on them to allow them to be connected to hunting or battle armor easily, the two chakt-ra she clipped to the belt of her battle skirt on her right hip.  
Now the bag was empty but she decided to keep it to help her carry anything else she might retrieve from these bad blood pauks. Turning her attention to body of the fallen bad blood Tik eleth began to pat him down, she didn't want to risk pulling him free of the spikes in case his weight caused her to lose her balance around all these deadly spikes, there were three things that she was looking for and much to her absolute delight she found all three totally intact, firstly she found at the base of his spine, was the medical kit that all Yaujta hunters carried into a hunt. 

Taking the silver colored tube she opened it up, inside were a collection of basic medical tools that were predominantly used for saving the user’s life, but in the right hands could be used to heal most wounds.  
Taking two small vials from the case she looked at them, one contained a silver metallic liquid that looked like mercury and the other a red liquid, next she took a small fan shaped mixing dish and opened it out.  
Cracking the tops of the vials open she mixed the two liquids into a muddy pink paste, then she took a small silver spatula and scooped the paste onto it, next came the really shit part, she jammed the mixture into the hole that the plasma caster had drilled through her shoulder.

“PAUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Tik eleth roared at the top of her lungs with her mandibles flared as the intense pain ripped through her shoulder, but this mixture was fast acting and in only seconds the pain faded and she heard the hissing fizzing noise of the mixture sealing the wound in her shoulder, it would take a few days before the wound was completely healed but this stuff would do to plug the wound up and speed things up in the meantime.  
Packing the kit away she clipped it to the same place the dark blood had carried it, to the rear of her hips, next up was located on his right shoulder.  
Unclipping the plasma caster from its mounting on the shoulder plate of his armor she turned it over in her experienced hands inspecting it, the casing was completely intact with not even a scratch, lifting it up she quickly clipped the mounting bracket to the mount on her right shoulder and it clicked snuggly into place.  
Finally she had to get the last piece, this one she was not looking forward to taking as of where it was, but to use the caster and to give herself a much needed edge she needed it. So leaning over the body carefully avoiding the spikes she reached over and pulled the bad blood’s head back, carefully she removed the connecting valves and slowly pulled the hunting mask from his face before letting the head back down, next up was the wrist computer to go with it as the mask was useless without it.  
Looking into the cold dead eyes of the bad blood was not pleasant, Tik eleth had killed many things over her young life as a huntress, but it was always different when the glassy eyes were one of your own species, even if he was a rather ugly bad blood scummy pauk she couldn't help but feel a small pang of guilt taking things from his corpse, she never liked desecrating the bodies of the fallen, she wasn’t even one for taking trophies from sentient species, preferring to test her metal against beasts of all shapes and sizes instead, but then again in his case it was his own fault, in taking on a blooded huntress like she was prey it had cost him the ultimate price.  
Checking the mask over in her hands she immediately noticed that this had not fared as well as the plasma caster, there were a variety of small dents over the smooth exterior surface, then she noticed one large one in the top right corner right where the view finder sensors were located, huffing at it she decided to try it anyway, she clipped in the valves and slowly pressed the mask to her face making sure her mandibles were retracted all the way, the mask clipped into place and immediately sprang into life, it booted up and instantly connected to the computer now mounted snugly on the dark grey vambrace she wore on her right arm. Immediately there was a problem, the dent to the sensor pack had compromised most of the masks viewing modes, the only ones that seemed to work properly were the thermal detection and the kiande amedha detection, next up she tested the tracking system and targeting, the plasma caster on her shoulder sprang into life and rose up on its mounting, then it started tracking her head movements as she turned her head left to right and back again, so at least that was working properly. After one last check of his body for anything useful Tik eleth thanked the fallen bad blood for his sacrifice and proceeded to climb back out of the pit, which was a hell of a lot harder going than climbing down had been thanks to her shoulder, but with gritted teeth an mandibles and lots of swearing she managed it.  
Tik eleth slumped down on her back after her climb to catch her breath, through the canopy of the trees she stared at the sky, it was beginning to get dark and clouds were parted just enough for her to see the stars starting to emerge, over the last four seasons of being stuck on this rock she'd become very familiar with these stars, but they weren't her stars, she longed for her home for her family, she missed her bearer and her father along with her two sisters, all the squabbles of family life, her sisters arguing over who was the better huntress, or who would bear the best pups, or who was breathing the best air, then and there she vowed that one day she would see them again or she'd die trying.

Finally regaining some of her strength she rose to her feet, she decided to pay a visit to the other sprung trap to see if the second bad blood that had fallen victim to it had anything useful, before she began the long trek back to the hidden cave she'd been calling home for the last four seasons.  
The walk through the forest to the second trap site was far from relaxing, this planet which was used by this particular bad blood clan as their own private hunting reserve was populated by some of the nastiest and most fearsome creatures in the known galaxy, it made even something as simple as going for a walk into a massive mission where you had to be constantly on guard or you’d end up as a snack for something a lot bigger and nastier than you.  
Reaching the second sprung trap Tik eleth sighed heavily, even before she examined the body she knew that she wasn't going to be able to recover anything of use here, the trap that the bad blood had sprung was a dead-fall trap made out of a rather large log hoisted into the tree canopy set to drop once something tripped the trip wire, the impact of said log on his head had driven the bad blood into the soft muddy ground like a pauking nail, this in turn had destroyed pretty much all of the equipment that he’d been carrying with him.  
She decided it simply wasn't worth the effort of pulling the rather large log off his dead body as she knew already what she would find and she could do without having to see his undoubtedly ugly face having been made even uglier by having been smashed through his head by the log, so with a heavy sigh she turned and started the rather long trek ‘home’.


	3. Awakening

A loud roaring noise was the first thing he became aware of, it was strange kinda like the noise you get when you open a car window at high speeds, the next feeling he got was a bitter cold all over his body combined with a strange sensation of falling.   
Slowly he forced his eyes open as the feeling was making him feel sick to his stomach, the first thing he saw was blue sky and what appeared to be clouds, but they were far bigger than usual, it almost felt like he could reach out and touch them, it was at that point he realized he actually could reach out and touch them as he punched straight through one.   
Spinning over it took him less than a second to realize that somehow he was in free-fall heading straight down towards a forestry, he was beginning to wish that he’d never opened his eyes now, the adrenaline that was now pounding through his body like someone opened a damn gate instantly cleared his groggy mind and he brought his arms and legs up into the balance position to stop himself spinning, as soon as he did he felt a rush under each of his arms and legs and he was unable to pull them far away from his sides, glancing to his sides he appeared to have fabric connecting his arms and legs together and at first his heart sunk believing them to be bound up, another second went by and he realized that it was actually a military wing suit he was wearing and the rush he’d felt was the canopies filling up with air. Pushing his arms and legs out straight to his sides Jack was able to gain control of the suit and was able to begin steering it, looking around at the massive green canopy below him he began looking for a possible crash site that might allow him to survive an impact, suddenly a pulsing beep caught his attention as it seemed to becoming from the center of his chest, glancing down he immediately spotted a large silver hexagonal piece strapped into the center of his chest, it appear to have a large red light flashing dead center of it that timed perfectly to the beeping.   
Steering with his hands and feet Jack managed to turn himself so that the wing-suit cells fully inflated and slowed his descent marginally from 120 miles per hour to simply 25 miles per hour, but it had the added effect of increasing his forward velocity up to nearly 200 miles per hour. 

Speeding through the air like a green missile Jack attempted to search for a viable landing spot, trees were not a good idea as he was likely to end up as a kebab on the branches, so as nasty as it was water was the only viable brake in this situation, at 120 miles an hour it would be like hitting concrete, but at 25 he may be able to survive it if he was able to kill his forward velocity at the last moment. Scanning the horizon for any signs of a river or a lake he turned his head from left to right, but he wasn't seeing much other than trees in every direction he looked, as it turned out he really didn't have to worry about his landing spot as the beeping thing on his chest suddenly went full crescendo and issued a seriously high pitched whine, just before he was yanked upwards like a giant invisible hand had grabbed him from the sky and tore him upwards. Looking upwards Jack could see the large parachute above his head, but as he looked at the connecting cords he noticed that there were no steering toggles on it, so whoever had put the damn thing on him had never intended him to really have any control over where he ended up, they just wanted him alive.

“Fucking goddamn FUCKING TREES!!!!!!!” Jack yelled to no-one as for the tenth time this hour he attempted to free himself from his now upside down hanging position.  
As he’d made contact with the canopy his chute had predictably caught in the branches but so had his connecting lines and they’d managed to flip him upside down, it had also torn shit out of his wing-suit rendering it useless, so here he hung like a seriously pissed of piñata trying to get some purchase to free himself.   
Ironically from Jack’s point of view he’d nearly made it all the way to the ground, he was currently hanging only six feet off the forest floor, but he might as well be a fucking million miles from it right now, looking up at the tree branch above him that his lines were wrapped around he noticed something attached to his boot, bending forwards for a better look he noticed that there was a knife in a scabbard attached to his foot,   
“Oh for fuck sake, well done Jack it’s only taken you an hour to notice the fucking knife” he said exasperated with himself, but then to be fair with himself he never wore a knife on his leg he always wore it at the base of his spine across his hips, but whoever had dressed him up like a flying fucking action man and thrown his arse out of a plane obviously hadn't taken his wardrobe choices into account. Bending double he slowly retrieved the large black combat knife from the boot scabbard, the next part was going to be unpleasant to say the least, so quickly he leaned up and grabbed the lines with one hand and with the other cut them right through with the razor sharp knife.

The sharp impact to the center of his back instantly winded Jack, even the fall wasn't high it still hit him square in the flat of the back as he impacted the ground, coughing and wheezing he rolled onto his side, slowly he was able to regain his breath and rose up into a sitting position, “Some fucker’s gonna pay for that one” he said to himself between coughs.  
Jack took a few minutes to get his breath back properly before he slowly got himself to his feet and took stock of his situation, a heavy weight on his back caught his attention and he felt behind him over his right shoulder, his hand instantly found a very familiar cold hard feeling object, feeling around for release straps he removed the .50 AS50 from his back. Turning the weapon over in his hands he checked it over, the weight told him that it was loaded and primed ready to go, he quickly checked the breech and confirmed his hypothesis that the gun was loaded and ready, ejecting the magazine he found ten cartridges in it,   
“Hmmmmm heavy loaded” he said to himself curious of the fact that not only was the magazine full but it also had a round ready in the breech of the gun.   
The next thing he did was to place the weapon down so that he could take the trashed wing-suit off, underneath it he was wearing standard forest pattern military fatigues and not the type he had been wearing when he was in South America, so whoever had thrown his arse out of this plane had taken great lengths to kit him out, he was also wearing a flak jacket with all the standard pouches all over it, most contained magazines for the AS50 at a rough count he had ten full magazines, so just over a hundred rounds for the large sniper rifle, he also came across large caliber pistol rounds in magazines within the pouches, looking down at his hip he found himself to be carrying a .50 Desert Eagle in a holster. Lifting it from the holster he checked it over, it had also been heavy loaded like the AS50, it wasn't his first choice of handgun as it was heavy and had one hell of a kick to it, but at least whatever you hit with the thing stayed down.  
After a full pat down of himself he discovered he was carrying a full operational load out, right down to the emergency dry eat rations and mini medikit, but what type of operation was this? Not only that where bloody hell was he? He’d found no order pack or no instructions of any kind, he also wasn't carrying any radio or any form of communication equipment, so he couldn't call anyone or they couldn't call him, nor was he carrying any form of navigation equipment, no map, no compass, no GPS.   
This entire situation was really starting to freak him out, but for now he settled on working out just finding out where the hell he was, so he decided to head for higher ground and to try and orientate himself, so he shouldered the AS50 and moved out.  
As he moved through the forest Jack was on constant guard as he didn't know if he was in either enemy territory or not, though he figured by the method of his arrival here it was most likely, so he kept his head on a constant swivel as he moved through the forest, but things just didn't seem right to him here, he couldn't quite place it but this whole thing just felt off, for instance he’d been noticing lots of different types of plants that he’d never seen before, not that Jack was a botanist but having been through most if the jungles on earth he knew most of what to expect in what region by sight, he knew what to stay away from and what could come in useful, but here there were large amount of plants that not only did not grow on the same sides of the planet but were cohabiting the same space, some of them he’d never even seen before.  
He also got the constant itchy feeling of being watched, but every time he looked around himself there was nothing, that was also true of wildlife, he hadn't seen a single animal since he’d arrived which was more than just strange it was downright freaky, usually by now he’d have seen monkeys or birds or something, or even heard them, but here it was silent except for insects, just where in the name of fuck was he?   
As he walked a sudden vibration in the ground caught his attention, dropping to one knee Jack swung his rifle through a firing arc but nothing appeared in his view, so gingerly he placed a hand to the ground and instantly felt the vibrations get stronger and they seemed to be increasing by the second which meant that they were getting closer, again he swung the rifle through a firing arc but this time spinning 360 to look all around himself, this time he did see something and instantly wished he hadn't, to his right hand side rear he spotted a tree disappear from the upper canopy which meant something had pushed it over and these trees were fucking huge, then only a second later another got pushed down only a few feet from it, whatever the fuck was strong enough to push the trees down was heading straight for him.  
Jack aimed his rifle in the direction of the rapidly approaching object, the only thing he knew that was strong enough to push trees this size down was either a bulldozer or possible a full battle tank like a challenger, but for something like that there would be an engine noise and there was simply nothing but the now closing sound of breaking wood and whatever it was, it was snapping these trees like twigs in its path. Looking through the scope of the rifle he caught a glimpse of something grey, it was absolutely massive standing at least six meters high, way bigger than either a tank or a bulldozer, that’s when he got the shock of his life, he saw a leg.  
Jack blinked more than once as this info sank into his very confused brain, he wasn't looking at a vehicle but an actual living thing!  
CRACK!! Another tree went down as the massive thing kept moving towards him, finally his instincts and training kicked in and he turned got to his feet and broke into a full on sprint, if this thing was actually coming for him he needed to get into a place to engage it and in this environment a sniper rifle even one as good as the AS50 is almost useless due to the confined space, he needed clear space to draw a bead on it at range, so moving as quick as he could he sprinted through the forest, hoping to find some sort of clearing where he could engage the thing.  
After a few minutes at full tilt with the massive living tank behind him gaining ground by the second Jack finally got his wish, he burst out of the tree line into a huge grassy clearing which was split in half by a rather large river, scanning the area he instantly spotted what he needed, to the left side there was a large rocky outcrop that stood about 8 meters tall, hopefully this would slow what-ever the fuck this thing was down, so Jack burned arse heading straight for it.  
Climbing was not Jack’s specialty by a long shot, but it was funny what being chased by a living tank could do for one’s abilities, he went up the rock like a fucking skink lizard on speed till he found a large flat piece near the top and got into position to shoot, now all he had to do was acquire and engage, that was if he could slow the jack hammer in his chest down enough for him to get an accurate shot off otherwise he may as well throw the bullets at it, especially as he hadn't zeroed this weapon himself which is a big thing for any shooter let alone sniper. As he tried to steady and slow his heart and breathing down he watched more and more trees falling like match sticks, which wasn't really helping if he was honest, he lined his scope on the area he figured where the thing would emerge based on its trail through the forest, that’s when he saw it and his eye nearly burst through the scope like a cheesy Disney cartoon.  
The creature looked like a cross between a giant rhino and a dinosaur, it was at least six meters tall and covered in grey skin that looked like armored scales, it’s head was narrow and pointed like a crocodile complete with a set of protruding giant man crushing teeth, also there were six huge horns that ran up the center of its snout to the center of its head, it also had a massive long tail with what looked like a massive bone hammer head on the tip, if all that wasn't bad enough it looked severely pissed off.  
The creature lifted its huge head into the air and began sniffing, obviously looking for the scent of its prey, then in an instant it lowered its massive snout and looked straight in Jack’s direction, “Ahhh fuck” he said under his breath when he realized it had spotted him up on the ledge, the creature let out an almighty roar that made Jack’s blood run cold and his heart start doing back flips, it turned and lined itself up on the rocks, Jack lined up on the creature’s head and took up the aim, the second it took a step forwards he fired.  
The massive rifle roared and jumped in Jack’s hands as the round left the barrel and screamed towards its mark, before bouncing harmlessly off the creature’s skull.   
“Oh fuck I think I pissed it off!” Jack screamed as the creature roared angrily and began to charge towards him, he lined up again and fired another, this one hit one of the horns on its head taking  
chunk out of it, this angered the creature even more and with a tilt of its shoulders it started moving even faster, it was rapidly closing the gap and Jack was really doubting the survivability of this rock if it made contact at this speed, his heart was hammering again now making his hands shake like crazy, then he saw it, one chance just one but if he could hit it, he fired again but this one bounced harmlessly off its skull again, he fired again, another bounce, he started taking deep breaths, he needed to calm down, get control of this or he was done for, he slowed his breathing, listened to his heart and started counting, breathe in, hold, count, exhale and repeat, the creature was almost on top of him now, he focused and fired one last round.  
The creature did a nose dive and drove the first horn on its large snout into the ground, the force of its charge caused the whole thing to flip over itself and it landed straight on its back but continued to slide forwards, it slammed into the rocky outcrop with enough force to shake it, Jack closed his eyes and took a few breaths and when the dust settled he darned to get to his knees and look over the side, a huge red socket stared back at him with red tears running down its face, exactly where the creature’s massive eye had been before Jack’s bullet had sent it straight back into its skull where it along with the bullet it was attached to had ricocheted around inside turning the creature’s brain into mush, killing it instantly.

“Holy fucking shit!! It worked! It actually fucking worked!!!!” Jack exclaimed looking down at the huge dead dino dozer at the base of the outcrop, at first he didn't believe it was actually dead and fully expected it to spring back to life even more pissed off than it had been before it’s charge at him, so he kept his rifle trained on it for two whole minutes waiting for it to move, but it neither moved or breathed in that time, so slowly Jack picked himself up off the ledge and gingerly climbed down to the ground. Slowly and silently he walked around the huge felled beast and took a good look at it, on the ground he could see just how gargantuan it actually was, it was at least six meters tall by fourteen long snout to tail, but he still couldn't believe what he was seeing, creatures like this just didn't exist surely? Prodding it a couple of times with the rifle barrel provoked no reaction from it, Jack shook his head, this whole situation had gone from fucked up to a whole new dimension of fucked up, not only had he been dropped out of a plane while unconscious into a jungle, but now that jungle seemed to be home to fucked up dino dozers that could snap 100ft trees like twigs and seemed to be carnivorous while being able to smell a man from god knows how far away, just what fucking twilight zone had he dropped into?  
Deciding that this wasn't a good place to hang around Jack used the clearing to spot the high ground that he needed, off to his left the terrain rose sharply leaning to what looked like a small mountain, he figured this would be useful to scout from but also might give him cover in the form of a cave to set up for the night, he really didn't feel like camping on the ground if those giant fuckers were going to be rampaging around, so with himself orientated he set off in the direction of the mountain, all the while having no idea that his every move from the second he’d burst out of the tree line till now was being observed by a silent and totally amazed observer.


	4. The Enemy of my Enemy

Tik eleth woke up early as always, she always had to start her hunts here before dawn if she wanted to eat that day, most of the smaller easier to catch creatures were smart enough to be in hiding before any of the larger predators emerged. Tik eleth knew that she could always choose to go after some of the larger game here but it was all about risk vs reward with a good hunt, why exert all that energy to bring something down when you hardly get anything back, most of the smaller creatures made much better eating than the larger ones, who had far tougher hides which did make good clothing but not much in the way of edible meat.   
Her bed was made from a variety of hides and furs of the creatures that called this place home, for something she'd knocked together herself out of necessity she found it rather comfortable, the frame was made from wood she'd harvested from the local trees and was rather large to comfortably accommodate her rather sizable frame.   
Though ironically Tik eleth was considered very small by her people's standards, she had endured many an insult from her peers growing up leading to many fights, often having been referred to as the runt given that both her siblings were far taller than she, for some reason this also seemed be considered more womanly among her kind, a fact that often enraged Tik eleth, this continual insult had driven her to prove to them all that size was not as they seemed to believe the be all and end all. This had led to her becoming one of the most accomplished hunters and warriors of her clan, but it all seemed to be for naught as while her clan were more than willing to revel in and champion her accomplishments, none of the eligible males would look twice at her preferring to chase after her taller more glamorous peers, their bare faced shallowness and two facedness infuriated Tik eleth, on one hand they were more than happy to revel in her glory but then were too worried about their social status to be seen with her.  
Rising from her bed Tik stretched out her tired muscles feeling her joints pop and click, it always took it out of her when a new season began and the bad bloods came after her, it had been four seasons since they’d stranded her here after forcing her ship to crash land on this planet, ever since then she’d been their plaything, coming back season after season to prove themselves by hunting her. But although she was stranded here with no way of calling her clan for help Tik eleth couldn't help but smile, she’d sent countless members of this particular blood clan to their grave as they constantly underestimated her season after season.  
After a quick wash off Tik eleth put her armor and equipment on, she’d always preferred to sleep naked as it made her feel unencumbered by worries of day, also she liked the feel of the soft furs and skins of the beasts she’d harvested against her skin, but what she wouldn't give for the chance to bathe properly, it had been so long since she’d felt the warm embrace of a proper bath. Looking at the skin of her shoulder she saw the latest battle scar, the medikit had its job and had it had started healing nicely, but then the dirt that constantly matted itself in her dreadlocks and she sighed, it was just as well there were no eligible males to show this scar off to as she didn't think they’d be able to get past the smell of her, not that they’d look at her twice due to the way she looked anyways, it wasn't like she judged herself by what males thought of her anyway, as she knew that she could beat pretty much any one of them in skill and prowess hands down, but it would still be nice to find at least one that wasn't a shallow self-absorbed social whore who would actually see her for her true self and would take notice, this time her sigh echoed through the cave she called home.  
Her morning hunt was pretty uneventful, she’d managed to bag herself a few shimmer lizards which were a staple in many of the beasts diets here, they were quite hard to get as they had a habit of being able to blend in perfectly with anything they touched, but at least they were good to eat even if they were quite small.   
That bag she’d taken off the bad blood in the pit was coming handy already as she stuffed yet another dead shimmer lizard into it, that was her fifth which meant that she had enough to eat for today, she never liked to keep large amounts lying around as the smell would attract the large beasts back to her home, then something strange happened, as she was walking back through the forest in the direction of her home she heard the familiar buzz of engines in the distance.  
Tik eleth immediately took cover to hide from the ship’s sensors till she could see if it was friendly or not, it was very strange as having defeated the latest hunting party they shouldn't be back yet as it was way too early for that, no this was something else entirely.

As she watched the ship came into view from the north, it was gliding in at a high altitude and didn't seem to be descending, so it wasn't a landing party or a rescue ship, its size immediately told her that it wasn't a hunting ship as it was way too big, then as she watched it seemed to start dropping things at large intervals over a wide area, firstly seemed to be a series of large cages which descended into the forest on parachutes, then there were slightly smaller cages dropped further east, then finally the ship moved over to a new area further to the west and started dropping smaller shapes which Tik eleth could barely see even with the zoom on her mask working properly, it dropped ten of the smaller things over quite a wide area before it seemed to finish its run and headed back into orbit, at first this puzzled her but then she clicked what must be happening, they were repopulating the game in the reserve.  
Tik eleth couldn't help but be curious as to what unfortunate creatures had been dropped in, but given the bad bloods habit of hunting the biggest nastiest things they could find it didn't bode well for her stuck here on the ground with them. She also found it an honourless tactic to take these creatures from their home and to drop them into unfamiliar surroundings just to have an advantage when you hunted them, there was no honor in killing a being when you blatantly had all the advantages over them, the true spirit of the hunt was to pit a hunter against prey in a one on one contest of strength on the prey’s terms to see if the hunter had what it took to overcome all adversity.   
Curiosity overtook Tik eleth, she decided to drop her catch back at her home then go and investigate the preserves new additions, she needed to know what sort of threat they would pose to her continued existence here, for now she started a steady sprint back to her cave in the mountains.  
After dropping off her catch Tik eleth had made her way to where she’d seen the cages being dropped, she’d chosen to use the trees to navigate this time as it usually helped her to remain unnoticed by various creatures on the ground, without the aid of her cloaking tech she’d had to develop a variety of ways to remain unnoticed by the creatures that now called this place home, mainly it served to keep her out of the reach of the sawtooths, which ever since their introduction two season ago had multiplied exponentially and had become a rather serious problem for anything moving around on the ground.   
They were a rather large breed of canine what had multiple rows of razor sharp cutting teeth, not to mention a thick scaled hide that acted like natural armor making them difficult to take down with most weapons save for a plasma caster, they also hunted in large packs of several individuals which made them a real problem for even for a seasoned hunter.  
It didn’t take her long to find the first of the cages, it smashed its way through two rather large trees on the way to the ground, it was made of a black metal that was scarred in places by what looked like claw marks that were gouged deep into its surface, it was at least four meters tall by twenty wide which meant that it either housed something very large or lots of smaller things, upon closer inspection she found that it was the latter as inside it was full of much smaller cages that were completely covered into both claw and tooth marks inside, indicating that whatever they once housed wouldn't be particularly pleasant.  
Over the next hour Tik eleth investigated each and every one of the cages, each was pretty much the same story, though the internal cages got bigger each time which didn't fill her with confidence, finally she went to investigate the smaller things that were dropped further out, this is where she got a shock, while moving through the trees she saw one of the small chutes hanging from a tree, the tension on it told her that was still something hanging from it, so moving closer she managed to get a better look and got a shock when she saw what was on the other end, it was an ooman.   
On closer inspection she could see that the ooman was dead, impaled on one of the trees branches obviously done on impact with the tree, the branch had hit it in the abdomen and had punched straight through and out the other side taking many of its intestines with it, blood was congealed in clumps down the tree which indicated that this ooman hadn't died instantly, when she turned its head to look at its face she had her hypothesis confirmed by the look of sheer agonizing pain frozen on its dead face.   
Tik eleth had obviously heard of oomans before, they were one of the species that her kind had uplifted in the past, though she had never actually seen one up close before, she inspected the dead ooman closely, it appeared to be one of the males of its species by the layout of its body, she had heard that they had been hunted by hunters in the past and had bested the hunters each time, they were considered by many to still be a prey species, from the stories that she had heard Tik eleth believed that they had earned some measure of respect having taken on both her kind and the kiande amedha and had bested both.   
This male was heavily armed with a projectile weapon that although primitive by their standards were still pretty effective, his clothing indicated some sort of militaristic existence given that he was wearing a camouflage pattern designed to disguise his presence, she looked at his face again, he wasn't much to look at given their smaller size it was hard to believe that they had bested both her kind and the kiande amedha, also given that he had no mandibles and strange flashy pieces covering his teeth she wondered how these humans bared their teeth to show their displeasure or anger, but given her kind’s history with them she’d have to be extra careful, pissed of heavily armed oomans running around were not going to be good for her or anything else in their path.  
Over the next three hours she found six more oomans all dead, some had been killed on impact with the trees like the first one she’d found others had been mauled by the local wildlife, by her count from the drop that left three of them still left out there, right now she was in a tree overlooking a clearing in the forest, she was trying to figure out where the next chute was in relation to the last one she found, they’d all been roughly two miles apart which in this environment might as well have been ten, then suddenly she heard something which made her blood run cold, it was the sound of breaking trees which could only signal one of two things and neither was pleasant.

There were only two things that she’d encountered in her time here that were strong enough to break the trees here, one was a monstrous primate with six legs and fire red fur that could literally tear the trees out of the ground and throw them at you if they saw you, the other well that thing was the stuff of nightmares even for a blooded huntress like her, a giant armored lizard with hide so thick that not even her plasma caster couldn't even dent it and a seriously vicious temper, if one of these things got wind of you they were relentless in their pursuit they would literally tear half the forest down to get to you.  
Just as she was deciding which way to run something caught her eye, it was an ooman, he came sprinting out of the forest at top speed and stopped in the clearing, suddenly Tik eleth knew what was being pursued now all she needed to know what was doing the pursuing.  
As she watched the ooman sprinted straight for a large rocky outcrop on the far side of the clearing and began to scale it, she was surprised at the speed at which he could move as she’d always been led to believe that oomans were slow and very ungraceful, but this one sprinted across the clearing and scaled the rock in no time, he seemed to be carrying some form of long barreled projectile weapon which he was now setting up on a small stand on top of the rocks, suddenly the pursuer was revealed as one of the huge armored lizards smashed its way into the clearing, The lizard sniffed the air for any sign of its quarry and instantly picked out the oomans scent, it looked right at the rock where he was hiding with a look of pure murder, Tik eleth figured that this was soon going to be one less ooman to worry about, the creature roared at the top of its lungs and then to her surprise the ooman fired, the weapon he had made a huge boom as it discharged and she saw the shell bounce right off the creature’s head, it turned its body and instantly began to charge.   
The ooman fired again this time taking a chunk out of one of its horns, he then fired two more shots and achieved two more bounces, this ooman was done for, amazingly brave for standing his ground like this against a creature like this, these things had been the end of countless hunters that had taken them on unprepared, Tik eleth admired his bravery for this, he was standing his ground despite this being certain death at least he would die honorably, then curiously the ooman went as still as a stone as she watched him, he had closed his eyes and seemed to be trying to focus, or maybe he was praying to whatever deity they believed in for salvation, but then to her complete shock and utter surprise he opened his eyes and fired one last time.

As Tik eleth watched in total and utter amazement the creature did a nose dive into the ground and flipped over on its huge back before slamming down hard into the ground and sliding into the rock, her mandibles dropped open in shock, this couldn't be, surely a mere ooman couldn't have killed one of the most dangerous creatures in this galaxy single handedly, to bring down these things it usually took a team of at least four or five heavily armed hunters working together and even then injuries were an almost certainty, but he’d just done it on his own armed only with a projectile weapon, she watched now as he climbed down the rock and checked the body over she guessed to make sure it was dead, then as she watched with still open mandibles rather than taking a trophy from such a monumentally glorious kill he simply began to walk away, any of her kind would have been beating their chest in triumph after such a glorious battle in fact that sort of kill would have brought a hunter the sort of honor that few could only dream about, quickly she scrambled down and being careful to stay out of sight she quickly headed over to the fallen body of the giant lizard, she just had to see how he’d brought it down like that, upon inspection she could plainly see that he’d managed to get one of those projectiles that this weapon fired through its eye, she looked back at where it had come from and looked at its path and could the see the part where it had been hit nearly a hundred meters away and the fact that it had been traveling at such a pace that it had slid for a hundred meters on its back before coming to a rest was not lost on her, the fact that he’d been able to make such a shot on such a fast moving target while it was bearing down on him with a enough power and force to able to have totally obliterated that rock was nothing short of incredible, she got the feeling that paying close attention to this ooman was advisable and he may prove actually useful to her, as given that he like her had been stranded here by the bad bloods he undoubtedly shared her feelings of malice towards them, he may even prove to a be a useful ally in any future fights, but how to approach him without him attacking her on sight?, she was going to have to further observe him and bide her time, so with that in mind she set off in hot pursuit of the ooman.


	5. First Contact

It took Jack quite a while to calm down from his encounter with the dino dozer, he'd had to stop and give himself a mental slap to stop himself going into a full on panic more than once. He felt like he was stuck in a full on nightmare after that encounter, slowly the pieces were starting to click together in the logic based part of his brain, the entire rest of it was refusing to believe it and was clinging to the hope that he would wake up in a hospital bed or any bed for that matter, having suffered the effects of some psychedelic compound that was pumped into him when that person in the tree shot him with the dart.   
Well that was until he finished climbing to the top of the mini mountain he'd decided gave him the best chance of navigating out of this hell hole. Because as he reached a large plateau he was presented with two sights that took his breath away and broke his mind completely, not only was there no end visible to the jungle in any direction but when he looked up to try and gauge the time he spotted four rather large moons.  
Tik eleth tracked the ooman through the forest rather easily, after following his trail for a bit she'd been able to pick out hid thermal signature against the various creatures that seemed to be giving him a very wide berth. She had to admit that little trick the ooman had done was ingenious, who would have ever thought of using the giant lizard's foul smelling blood to not only mask your own scent, but to make all the other creatures fear you, for if there was one thing on this planet that just about everything else feared it was them.  
As she watched, the ooman began to climb up one of the many mini mountains of the planet, she guessed that he was either seeking cover or maybe trying to use the height to aid with navigation, she was going to have to be very careful tracking him here as the lack of cover would leave her exposed and he had a head start on her so he already had a height advantage for his sight lines, plus given that his weapon had quite an impressive range and power it was not a situation to be taken lightly by any standards.

Jack stared at the four massive moons in utter disbelief, there was no use pretending anymore and no amount of denial was going to help here, he had either completely lost his mind or somehow he was on a totally different planet.  
For what felt like a very long time Jack replayed the events that had led up to this point over and over in his head, it all led to the point where he got knocked out and ended up here, he tried to recall the image of the person that tranquilized him, but try as he might all he got was a shadow, a very big shadow at that.   
Suddenly the weight of the entire situation came crashing down on Jack and he felt incredibly tired, he realized that since he'd freed himself from the tree he hadn't stopped, looking around the side of the mountain he quickly and thankfully spotted what he needed, a cave.

Watching from a ledge a hundred meters to his left Tik eleth wondered what was going through the ooman's mind, for quite some time he simply sat there staring at the sky, she wondered if like her he was thinking about how he could make it off this rock on which they found themselves stranded, or maybe he was thinking about the vengeance he would extract on the vermin bad bloods that had stranded him here, a goal that she would gladly aid him in accomplishing.   
As she watched the ooman he slowly brought his head down from looking at the sky and began to scan the mountain, settling his vision on a cave located halfway up the face of a fairly steep cliff, slowly he rose to his feet, slinging his weapon over his back, he adjusted the straps to secure it then he begun to climb towards the cave.  
Tik eleth guessed that he must be looking for refuge for the fast approaching night and a hard to reach cave was a wise decision. A thought suddenly struck her, given how long she'd been tailing him and how long of daylight they had left there was no way she could reach her own cave before nightfall and if there was one thing after four seasons here that she knew for certain, if you wanted to live you did not go out at night.  
This left her with a difficult choice, did she try looking for a cave of her own, or did she take a massive risk and share the ooman's cave, she knew the latter would force a confrontation and she didn't know if she was ready for that yet, he was already a proven warrior in her eyes having taken down that lizard singlehandedly, but she would have preferred to have more time to study the ooman so that she could not only judge his intentions but to gauge his usefulness as an ally, some people were just not good at working with others as well she knew, she herself had often been reluctant to work with other hunters in favour of doing things her way and on her own, but looking around the side of the cliff face it seemed that the ooman had managed to pick the only viable cave on this side of the mountain and with the light quickly fading it would seem she had little choice, so now all she needed was to plan this out carefully.

Before he exposed himself to any potential threat inside the cave Jack just listened, he hung below the mouth of the cave on the rock face and just listened, he was listening for scratching scraping or any sign of movement from within that would announce that he was going to have to fight an occupant for ownership, but much to his relief he heard nothing but silence from within. But ever the cautious type Jack moved slowly and silently as he poked his head slowly above the lip, the cave was shaped like a narrow jagged oval, it would be just high enough for him to stand up without banging his head, he remained motionless as he stared into the blackness of the cave, he was waiting for an explosion of movement to signal that he'd disturbed something within, but it never came.  
Emboldened by this Jack heaved himself over the lip of the cave, but rather than immediately get to his feet he reached to his hip and drew his sidearm pointing the large handgun into the darkness, still nothing moved so slowly Jack raised up into a shooters crouch and with his handgun extended in front of him, proceeded slowly into the perfect darkness.  
Once his eyes adjusted Jack could see that the cave was a fair bit bigger than he originally thought, it appeared to be ten meters deep by fifteen long, one thing he'd found in his pouches earlier that would be useful here was a small torch, he extracted it now and turned it on keeping it directly under his gun barrel so that anything the beam found he could instantly engage. The walls of the cave were jet black, normarily this would indicate water, but these didn't look wet, he slowly ran his hand over the low ceiling and found it dry as a bone and warm to the touch, the stone reminded him of pictures he'd seen of obsidian.   
A quick scan of the cave revealed that he was indeed alone in here, to his far left there was a long piece that kinda looked like a black mortuary slab only a few inches off the floor, it seemed like as good a place as any to rest up, before he did so though he remembered his field craft of sleeping in an unsecured location, so taking the empty shell cases from his earlier engagement with the dino dozer, a good sniper always polices their brass when they can, he set them up at intervals at the entrance, hopefully if anything entered it would knock one over and alert him to its presence, then with this done he returned to the slab and removed both his rifle and his body armor, this was not going to be the most comfortable night’s sleep ever, but right now he was far too exhausted to care.

Hanging below the lip of the cave Tik eleth listened intently, the only sound she could hear coming from the cave was the slow rhythmic sound of the ooman's breathing, slowly she peeked her head up above the lip and peered inside her plasma caster tracking every move of her head, to her surprise she could see no sign of the ooman despite being able to hear him quite plainly, immediately she noticed five little shiny things on the floor in varying intervals at the cave mouth, she smiled under her mask, "Clever ooman" she silently murmured as she observed the basic noise maker traps, slowly and silently she climbed over the lip edge and immediately killed her plasma caster worried that the slight noise of it rotating on its mountings may alert the ooman to her presence, silently she withdrew one of her daggers from the base of her spine and crouched so that she could enter the low cave, silently she moved inside carefully of the noise maker traps as she went, moving slowly she turned her head right to left as she entered scanning for his heat signature, immediately she spotted him to her left laid on a long slab of rock, she immediately froze solid and observed him silently even holding her breath, he made no movement at all and he appeared to be fully asleep. Tik remained motionless for a solid minute before she decided to approach him, moving silently she chose her steps carefully as to make sure she neither tripped either one of his noise maker traps or hit debris, slowly and painstakingly she moved till she was leaning right over him.

At this distance Tik eleth saw the ooman's face for the first time, it was pretty distorted by her thermal imager but this was still the first time she'd seen him up-close. To her eyes oomans were quite a strange looking species, no mandibles for expressing themselves, no forehead ridges, in fact they looked rather fragile processing no obvious natural armor, the exposed skin she could see of his face and lower arms looked rather soft, suddenly she caught herself almost reaching out to feel it, then she froze solid, what in the name of pauk was she doing? She gave herself a mental slap and slowly retracted her hand from the inch away from touching the ooman's face, what the hell had possessed her to do that? Had she taken complete leave of her senses? Quickly correcting her course from his face to his side she slowly and silently lifted the large rifle from the ooman's side and took it away from him, placing it on the floor to her right before returning to the sleeping ooman and very slowly and deliberately removing the smaller projectile weapon from by the side of his face, once these were safely removed she turned and picked up the larger one and took them both to the other side of the cave, now all she had to do was wait.

Jack groaned loudly as he woke up, his entire body felt like it was made out of cement, every single muscle ached like he'd run a fucking marathon and sleeping on a very uncomfortable stone slab had not helped at all.   
Slowly he sat up and as he did he felt every single vertebra in his spine click in one after the other, it felt like someone ran a fucking zipper up his fucking spine,   
"Ugggh fucking Hilton needs to sort these beds out they’re as hard as stone" he mumbled to himself with a slight chuckle as he rubbed his stiff neck, then he froze solid, a cold empty feeling to his left told him something was very wrong, glancing down to his left revealed his AS50 was gone, turning his head slightly he noticed his Desert Eagle was missing also, the last place he looked was at his left boot, to his relief he noticed the knife handle still in place.  
Jack’s fingers flexed slowly as he planned the movement in his head, obviously who’d taken his weapons was to his right as the wall was to his left, he instantly slowed his breathing and opened his mouth slightly to reduce cavity noise, straight away he was able to pick out the breathing of another in the cave with him, it was quiet and sort of had an usual tone to it almost like it was being vented through a respirator but it was there as clear as day, his plan was simple snatch the knife and roll off the bed all in one move, that was until he noticed three red laser dots in the center of his chest, “Remain still ooman, do not move” a strange voice from his right said quietly, was it his imagination or did the strange voice sound almost feminine? Slowly he held his hands out to his sides away from his body to show no threat, while at the same time he turned his head slowly in the direction of the strange voice, although the dark of the cave made it extremely difficult to see he could make out a figure sat on the floor a few meters away from him, it was rather large in size which surprised him considering only a second ago he’d thought the voice had sounded rather feminine, that’s when he noticed the distinct shapes of his weapons on the floor next to the figure, whoever they were they could teach a fucking ninja a few tricks to have been able to get that close to him when he was asleep considering how light a sleeper he was, “Well you've got my guns and obviously have me at a disadvantage, but since I’m alive and we’re having this conversation I assume you have business with me” he said slowly and clearly, the figure didn't respond immediately but he heard a strange clicking noise like fingernails being clicked together,   
“Relax ooman, mean you no harm, but will defend if needed” the figure with the gruff but oddly feminine sounding voice said slowly, he considered this,   
“So if you mean me no harm then why take my weapons?” Jack asked,   
“To prevent misunderstanding and unwanted hostility” the figure said, this actually made sense to Jack, it was one way of preventing a Mexican standoff with them both pointing weapons at each other and he had to admit he wasn't really sensing any hostile intentions from this strange figure, “Well then if you want to prevent any unwanted hostility would you mind kindly untraining your weapon from my chest?” he said slowly, the figure seemed to consider this for a few moments before the lasers suddenly disappeared and there was a strange whirring noise from the direction of the figure, he also could have sworn he saw something attached to the figure move, “Very well ooman but not be stupid” the figure said, Jack took this as a sign that he could relax a bit, so slowly he lowered his hands and rotated his body to face the figure making sure to keep his actions as plain and obvious as possible so that there was no room for misinterpretation, “Thank you” he said,  
“Ooman made request respectfully, showing honor” the figure said as if that was meant to mean something to him, suddenly it clicked in his head that this figure had been calling him ooman ever since this very strange conversation had begun,   
“Jack” he said, the figure didn’t reply to this but he saw what he assumed was the figure’s head cock to one side and he took this as a sign of either curiosity or not understanding, then it said something that sounded like “Ack?” both a statement and a question,  
“Jack, it’s my name, I believe it’s always customary and polite to introduce oneself” he said pressing one hand to his chest and correcting the figure, he saw the figure’s head move in a sort of nodding motion and he heard that strange clicking noise again,   
“I am Tik eleth proud huntress of the Shadow's Claw clan, it good to converse with you Ack” the figure said pressing one hand to its chest with a sort of metallic clang, then it clicked the figure had said huntress so it was a she after all,   
“Well then Tik eleth it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, now maybe you can kindly explain to me, just what the flying fuck is going on here?” he said looking at the shadowed figure of the large huntress dead on with the hope that maybe she knew why he was here and what the fuck was happening.


	6. Uneasy Alliance

Jack sat there and listened intently as Tik eleth explained their situation in that really unusual accent of hers, it wasn't until quarter of the way in to the explanation that actually clicked that Tik eleth wasn't actually human and at this point his jaw just dropped open, it hadn't even occurred to him that he might be conversing with an alien species let alone in his own language, but at least it explained why she’d started off by calling him ooman.  
From what he could piece together from Tik’s explanation she was stranded here by what equated to a criminal family among her people which they referred to as bad bloods, they kinda reminded Jack of things like the mafia or even the old pirate clans that roamed the seas in the 1600 and 1700s and even more recently in Somalia back on earth, criminals banding together because of a common cause.   
It turned out they had been hunting her ever since they’d managed to strand her here, this place was some sort of hunting reserve which their clan used as their own personal retreat to break in new hunters to the clan or Young Bloods as they called them, in a sort of literal trial by fire or a rite of passage would be more apt.   
The way she spoke about them made Jack think of a few things that had happened on earth that had become a sort of urban legend among soldiers, like an instance that he’d heard about from an American Marine that took place in one of the jungles in South America in the 1980’s, but Jack knew better than to interrupt someone when they were giving you free information, so he let her finish as she explained how she’d just finished killing off their latest hunting party when they decided to change track and drop in ten of his species into the jungle which instantly got his hopes up before learning that apparently most of which were already dead, then she explained about while she was searching for more of his kind she’d witnessed his battle with the giant dino dozer in the clearing, it kinda irked him that she had seen it and had offered him no help, but he said nothing about it sort of figuring that’s how her kind seem to work from what she was saying and the language she was using, in fact she seemed to more than just a little impressed by his glorious victory over the dino dozer, words like warrior, honorable and single combat were being thrown about a lot, then she brought the story up to date by telling him how she’d stalked him to this cave and relived him of his weapons to be able to open an unhostile dialogue with him in the hopes of forging an alliance with him.

“…. Together we be much stronger than alone Ack, then we might stand a chance of leaving this place and getting back to our clans, but if these terms are not acceptable to you Ack then I will leave you be, as I believe Ack to be an honourable warrior who would not interfere with my hunts as I would not interfere with his” Tik eleth said looking at Jack who was still trying to figure out what she looked like as she sat in the deep shadows,   
“Ok but I agree to anything may I ask a few questions?” he asked,   
instantly he heard that strange clicking noise that Tik seemed to make every so often, “Questions?” she said almost sounding annoyed that he hadn't given his answer immediately,  
but she understood that a good warrior and hunter always checked every detail of their hunt,   
“Firstly what do these bad bloods want with either of us? I mean why are they hunting us?” he asked,  
“Strong prey” she answered flatly,  
“Ok then how many of them are we likely to be facing?” he asked,  
“Three, a hunt leader and two young bloods, no more no less” she replied, he nodded at this,  
“Finally if I help you how do I know that you won’t just leave me here when you have no more need of me?” he asked,  
instantly heard a rapid clicking noise coming from Tik and he figured that he’d just pissed her off a bit, he was right.   
“I AM NOT AN HONORLESS BAD BLOOD PAUK!!!” she roared at the top of her lungs causing Jack to jump a mile,  
he very nearly reached for his knife but stopped himself at the last second fearing that this might escalate an already tense situation,   
“I never said you were, I simply asked what guarantees I have” he said trying to sound calm while his heart hammered in his chest, this seemed to calm her down a little bit,   
“I am a proud huntress of the Shadow Claw clan, our word is bond” she said still sounding irritated, Jack decided that this would have to do for now as it was obviously not wise to piss off the rather large alien huntress,   
“Very well I accept that then and I can relate to that Tik eleth as my word is also my bond and once given it is never broken” he said, this seemed to calm the huntress down further, “Then Ack is honorable” she said, he nodded, finally feeling a little more confident in his position here he took a deep breath and stood up from his sitting position, the whole time he could feel her eyes on him watching both curiously and suspiciously, slowly he approached her and then stopped a few feet away and raised a hand offering it to her, she cocked her head to one side and did not move, he instantly realized that she didn't know what a handshake was so he tried to explain in terms she would understand,   
“It’s a human or ooman as you call us thing, it shows that two parties have made an agreement and our words have been given, this gesture is to seal the bond to each other” he said,  
Tik clicked a few times then she got to her feet and suddenly he realized that she was even bigger than he’d imagined as she had to stoop under the cave ceiling, she approached him slowly and stuck out her rather large hand to him, he took it and closed his around hers shaking it, her skin felt rather rough but that the same time rather warm,  
“Then it is done our bond is made and now we have an agreement” Jack said,   
“Together till victory or till death” Tik eleth replied clicking happily, she was glad that she was right about this ooman, he did truly understand the ways of honor and she believed he would make a strong ally despite his obvious handicap of being ooman, though she had to admit from what she’d seen him do earlier he’d probably have made a decent Yaujta.  
Tik eleth returned Jack’s weapons to him now as their bond of trust was sealed, he put his armor on and checked his weapons over as she watched, she had to admit she kind of liked that ooman custom of shaking hands to seal a bond, it kind of had an intimacy that her people lacked and she liked that, she’d been led to believe that oomans were honourless so it was refreshing to find the very first one she was forced to interact with understood the ways of honor,  
“So what now Tik?” he asked, she looked at him in the darkness of the cave, the shortening of her name made her click her mandibles in annoyance,   
“My name Tik eleth! Not Tik” she said with irritation,   
he looked at her and did something strange that caused him to move those fleshy things out of the way and show her his teeth, this caused her breath to catch in her throat as she saw the fact that he had fangs and rather large ones at that, she never knew that oomans had such sharp warrior like teeth,  
“Well you shorten my name from Jack to Ack so it’s only fair right, from Tik eleth to Tik” he said still showing his teeth to her, the thermal vision of her mask really didn't allow her to see much detail of his face but she still found herself studying the detail she could see, like his strong jaw and his sharp hunter’s teeth, she quickly shook her head to clear it,   
“If you must” she said trying to sound irritated,   
“So then back to my question what next Tik” he said putting a real emphasis on her name, she clicked her mandibles in annoyance but let it slide, she was rather surprised that a mere ooman had the gall to address a blooded huntress with such boldness, he really was an enigma and rather a fascinating one at that, but she couldn't tell yet if he was going to be an asset or just a major pain in her rear,  
“We return to cave for rest and food, we need strength to fight bad bloods” she said,  
“Sounds like a plan to me, I assume since you've been here a while you have a strong hold?” he said, she nodded, “I have cave yes” she said, then he made a gesture with his hand,   
“Lead on I’ll follow you and watch your back” he said, at this Tik snapped round to face him so fast her dreadlocks whirled around her in a massive arc,   
“Why you wish to watch my back ooman!!?” she asked in a rather loud surprised voice that actually sounded a bit like a squeak at the end, but still nearly made Jack almost jump out of his skin.   
After his heart slowed down a bit he realized that he was obviously going to have to word things a bit more carefully around her, “Err sorry it’s just an ooman I mean human expression, it means you lead I follow and watch to make sure enemies don’t sneak up on us from behind, so you don’t have to constantly keep watching behind you to see what’s sneaking up on you and visa versa” he said, this seemed to calm her down as suddenly she remembered something her father had told her when he was telling her about oomans when she was a youngling and she understood, although she knew very little about them she did know of their hunting tactics like any good hunter did, she knew that oomans usually worked in large teams and they would look out for each other.   
“Ok Ack I lead you follow” she said and he nodded looking at her, as they headed for the entrance of the cave Tik found a strange thought entering her head that she immediately chased out, she actually felt a very brief and very strange flash of disappointment that Jack wasn't actually watching her back.  
As they got outside Jack got his first proper look at Tik eleth and immediately he had to stop his jaw from dropping open, the first thing that caught his attention was how tall she was compared to him, she was huge at just under 7ft tall, the next thing that caught his attention was her skin, it was sort of rough looking and sort of looked like scales, in fact it reminded him of Bonzo the pet Bearded Dragon that he had as a child, so named because it was a complete clown, always falling over or off things and then trying to make it look like it had done it on purpose. A brief mental flash of Tik falling over something and nearly demolishing half the forest on the way down flashed through his head and he had to suppress a giggle as he figured she’d probably rip his head off and shit down his neck if he laughed at her.   
He had to admit her skin was rather striking in its coloration, it was like a natural camouflage colors full of greens, yellows and browns all swirled together in various stripes all over her, it sort of reminded him of early forest camo before the military switched to that digital blocks stuff.   
Next up was how just like a human woman she was in her shape, everything was obviously a lot bigger but it was all there, broad shoulders that led into two powerful and well-muscled arms that were toned to the max, she looked like she could rip a phone book in half and probably eat it afterwards. Feminine curvy hips led into two long shapely and very powerful looking legs that led into large flat and clawed but still rather graceful looking feet, with thighs that made her look like she could kick a rugby player through the posts let alone the ball.   
Her flat stomach was full of abs so solid looking that looked like they should have abs of their own, her stomach led up to what looked like medium sized bust that was hidden under heavy looking black metal armor that covered her entire upper torso, he also noticed that she seemed to be wearing some sort of black leather short skirt that had a belt with a large black claw on it, her legs were covered in some sort of fishnet like stockings that terminated at her ankles, two black metal armor pieces covered her calves and looked to the pieces she wore on her forearms.  
Tik eleth noticed Jack staring at her and turned to face him, “What you look at ooman?” she asked sounding irate, “Err sorry, Ive just never seen one of your kind before and I never expected you to look….., well to look so powerful and strong” he said dodging the bullet of nearly saying womanly which he felt would have probably pissed her off mightily, it wasn't that he foresaw her having a problem with her gender, nor for that matter did he, some of the best soldiers he’d ever met in his career had been women, like this Russian Spetsnaz sniper he’d met once, all her teammates called her ‘Crazy Olga’ and had told him that she was a total ice queen and a frigid bitch, but Jack being Jack always tended to judge people for himself and decided he wanted to get to know her, as it turned out all her male counterparts that had given her the name were simply pissed off that not only was she not interested in their advances but also jealous of her ability while also rather intimidated by her.   
It turned out to be the whole women can’t possibly be stronger than men deal, which was a mentality that Jack really never got to be honest, to him it didn't matter what equipment you kept in your pants but how well you could do your job and keep your focus when the shit hit the fan, so he always put that type of mind-set down to masochistic bullshit and totally insecurity in yourself.   
When he did manage to get to know her it turned out she was one of the best snipers he’d ever met and the pair of them had a great laugh getting rat arsed on super strong vodka, they’d created their own drinking game while camped out in an OP on a hill in one of the Balkan states during a training exercise, it involved shooting golf balls off tees at about nearly a mile away with and old SVD Dragunov that she’d brought with her, as it turned out it mightily pissed the golfers who were trying to play at the time off and at that range they couldn't even hear the shots thanks to the terrain so they didn't even have a clue what the hell was happening.   
So rather than taking the time to get to know her, all her supposed teammates instantly dismissed and labeled her simply because she rebuffed them, that was her then pegged as an ice queen just because she didn't put up with shit or tolerate dickheads and something told him that Tik like Olga, would rather be judged on her strength, ability and skills and not just on her physical attributes.   
It seemed to have worked as Tik flicked the long dreadlock like appendages on the rear of her head over her back,   
“Well of course I strong ooman, I Tik eleth am proud Shadow Claw huntress” she said sounding proud, as he seemed to have said the right thing Jack decided to push it a bit further, he decided that a happy Tik would be easier to work with than pissed off Tik, God he really didn't want to see her pissed off as looking at the size on her arms she probably could tear him in half,   
“Well if the rest of your kind look half as strong as you then your kind must be pretty hefty in a fight” he said, she made a clicking noise but this one sounded very different from the annoyed one he was getting used to she must have liked the compliment, pity he couldn't see her face for the large metal mask she was wearing,  
“Yaujta powerful warriors, even younglings trained to kill” she said proudly,   
“Noted” he said feeling that he was going to have a serious fight on his hands if he ever pissed this female alien Spartan off, he gestured with his hand for her lead the way and she nodded and headed for the edge to climb down, Jack tried to resist but he couldn't help himself, as she moved to the edge of the cliff and bent forwards to get her first hold he glanced at her and noticed that the battle skirt she wore obviously concealed a rather nice shapely rear beneath it, ‘What in the flying fuck are you doing Jack?’ he thought giving himself a hard mental slap to clear his head before following her down over the edge.  
Tik eleth found herself smiling at Jack’s words as she climbed down the side of the cliff with him above her, it seemed that this strange ooman knew a true huntress when he saw one, but she found herself puzzling at why could a mere ooman see easily what one of her own kind could not?, he’d called her powerful and strong, which told her that somehow he’d easily picked up on just how hard she’d worked to prove herself, she’d found herself feeling flattered by this but at the same time she felt extremely annoyed at it, why if it was so obvious did a male of their kind see it straight away but the ones of her own kind refused to even acknowledge it, instead preferring to belittle her in front of her peers making constant snide comments about how small she was compared to a ‘normal’ female, suddenly that thought worried her and she got the feeling that if Ack saw another Yaujta huntress he may change his opinion of her when he saw how much more powerful, stronger, taller and obviously more beautiful than her they were.   
But at the same time she took the compliment that the strange ooman had paid her in the way it was meant, it was the first time that any male had ever complimented her strength and battle prowess and it felt good to receive some acknowledgement, especially from a battle proven warrior, because even if he was just an ooman he was still one that had brought down a giant lizard singlehandedly in a glorious hunt which she’d had the utter privilege to witness, which meant that his words despite his species would have carried much honor among her kind, but still she wished that one and even if it was only one, male of her own kind would see what this ooman had seen in her instantly.  
Jack carried his AS50 readied in the shoulder as they moved through the jungle on the floor, his first trick had been luring Tik back down from the trees, as when they’d gotten down from the cliff the first thing she’d done was leapt up into the trees with all the grace of a huge and very deadly cat, so he’d had to explain to her that he couldn't operate effectively if he was having to constantly look up to see where she was so he could follow her. This had irritated her mildly but she’d finally agreed after Jack had made a demonstration of how ungraceful at tree climbing he was by jumping at one and gracefully slamming face first into it, which had made her make this hissing clicking noise which he figured was some form of laughter.  
But joking about and fool making aside they were now moving together and he could see the obvious professionalism in the way she moved, she was constantly on watch the same as him, this was the mark of a trained and professional soldier or warrior, she was looking at everything and he could see that weird remote operated cannon on her shoulder tracking her every move, strangely he had to admit to himself that he was kinda glad to have her here, this environment was hostile enough so it nice to have someone watching his back, even if that someone was a huge alien amazon.   
Suddenly Tik stopped dead and knelt down to inspect something on the track, Jack stopped dead and dropped to one knee scanning the forest with his weapon, “Whatcha got?” he said in a hushed voice, Tik instantly made a gesture to hush him and he obeyed it, but he moved over to her slowly and in a crouch, she pointed at a series or large and rather fresh paw prints in the mud of the forest floor, these things sort of looked like a canine paw print but much larger, suddenly Jack heard a rustling as well as twig snap to his left and he spun with his weapon readied, Tik did the same and he could see her cannon searching in his peripheral vision. For what felt like hours but what was only a few seconds both of them scanned the forest for movement, suddenly there was another noise directly behind them and both of them spun to look for it, again to be met with nothing, this was immediately followed with another noise behind them again, “Multiple targets and their circling us” Jack whispered, Tik nodded,  
“Calibri wolves, pack hunters, four maybe five” she said quietly,   
“Go back to back you take left I got right” Jack said, Tik clicked quietly then nodded, Jack moved behind her and they stood back to back watching the forest, suddenly there was a massive roar from the cannon on Tik’s shoulder indicating she had a mark, then Jack saw a large black six legged dog like creature emerge from behind a tree in front of him, it was totally hairless with lean looking black muscles and a jaw that split open showing three rows of real nasty looking teeth, immediately he sighted and fired on it, the massive AS50 roared in his hands, not being able to lay prone meant that the weapon jumped right up off target, so it was a good thing that Jack hit his mark first time, the creature’s head disappeared in a cloud of black mist and it fell over, almost immediately he saw another one burst out of the bushes to his right, it was a hundred meters and closing at a sprint, AS50 was useless at this range so he dropped it so that it swung on its harness and drew the massive Desert Eagle, the creature seemed to know what his weapon was or maybe it learned quick because it jinked left and right, from behind him he heard Tik fire that cannon of hers again, drawing a bead Jack let loose a few rounds of his own the massive handgun boomed and jumped with each shot, each of the rounds found its mark blowing chunks off the massive wolf before it did a nose dive into the mud and stopped moving as the last round hit it square in the throat.  
From behind him Jack was suddenly slammed forwards which caused him to go instinctively into a roll and as he picked himself up and turned he saw why, while they’d been busy one of the wolves had slipped around the side and had tackled into Tik knocking her backwards on to the ground, “Tik!!” Jack yelled and sprinted towards her as she wrestled with the massive canine, but before he reached her Tik deployed some really mean looking blades from her wrist and stabbed the wolf in the side causing it screech in pain, then she threw it off her and sprang to her feet with amazing grace for someone as big as her, she dropped into a fighting stance with her wrist blades drawn, with her other hand she drew a rather large sword from her back and flourished it with real style, it was nearly three foot long with a massive mean looking dark metal blade that curved at the tip, then as he watched in awe she charged right at the massive canine and with a single deft flick of her wrist took its ugly head clean off its shoulders with the massive sword.  
Upon killing the bothersome canine Tik eleth let loose a roar of victory that echoed through the forest, she then stood up to her full height and turned to face Jack who she found staring at her, then as she watched her retracted his fleshy things again to bare his teeth at her in that rather fetching way that he did,  
“You really showed that fucking wolf who’s boss” he said all the time baring his teeth at her,   
“Pauking wolves are no match for a blooded huntress” she spat looking down at the dead wolf at her feet, then she noticed the two dead wolves behind him, she smiled inside her mask at his share in the victory,   
“The victory and the honor is shared” she said gesturing to Jack’s two kills, he glanced at them and nodded, then Tik had an idea she quickly turned to her kill and knelt down, Jack watched curiously as she pulled two of the canine’s massive razor sharp teeth from its severed head and then walked over to him, holding out one of the teeth to him,  
“A trophy of our first joint victory” she said, Jack was a little grossed out but he realized that this had to be a cultural thing for her as she kept referring to herself as a huntress so this had to be important to her, so took it and nodded thinking quickly of something to say to show her that he respected her culture,   
“A symbol of our shared honor then” he said instantly thinking that sounded cheesy as fuck, but instantly he heard those odd happy clicks or what he hoped were happy clicks coming from her again,   
“Ack understands” she said sounding happy, then she turned and they continued on their way.  
As they took a couple of steps Jack noticed something odd on the ground, it was in the space that Tik had been in when the wolf had knocked her down, stopping he leant down and picked it up and turned it over in his hands, it was some sort of small book, it looked like it had been bound in an animal skin of some kind and was fastened together with a rather large black clasp that seemed to be made from the same metal as Tik’s armor, undoing the catch the book fell open to the last page and the first thing her noticed was that all the pages were made from a skin like material sort of like a crude form of vellum like they used to use back on earth hundreds of years ago, in the spine making a crude page marker was what appeared to be a black and white feather that had been sharpened to make it into some form of quill, he couldn't read the symbols written on the pages as he figured this must be Tik’s native language, but he did notice that they seemed to be written in what appeared to be blood of some kind and given that the symbols stopped halfway down the page he wondered if it was some form of diary or log.   
Suddenly a sense of dread filled him and he quickly closed it and resealed it, he knew how pissed most human women got if you read their diary being caught reading the diary of a massive alien amazon would probably end with being force fed his own balls followed by various other parts of his anatomy.   
“Err I think you dropped this Tik” Jack called to her waving the book, she turned to glance at him and did such a vigorous double take that her dreadlocks swung out like tentacles from her head, then she charged right at him at full tilt, he held the book out quickly at arm’s length and it was promptly snatched from his hand and he could feel her glaring at him even through the mask.   
Tik eleth was enraged with herself that she’d dropped her precious diary, all her innermost thoughts, private moments, musings about this place and the life it had given her were all contained within, not to mention the poems she’d written about her time and her hunts here, if this ooman had read it then she would have had no choice but to have removed his skull and spinal column lest that he tells someone that she Tik eleth a blooded and powerful huntress and warrior of the Shadow claw clan, writes and enjoys poetry.   
But then her stance relaxed somewhat as she realized that he had done the honorable thing of returning it to her when he could have just kept it without saying a word, but also it hit her that there was no chance that even if he had looked inside that he could have read it as it was written in her native tongue, “Thank you Ack” she said quietly looking at the book she was clutching protectively in her hands,   
“Don’t worry about it, thought it looked important” he said making some sort of dismissive gesture with his hand, little did the ooman know just what sort of debt she owed him here, if one of the bad blood pauks had found this book, well that didn’t bear thinking about, so without saying another word she re-secured the book in its pouch in her skirt and they turned and carried on their way.  
Although it was a rather long walk and it was starting to get dark by the time they got there, the rest of their walk to Tik’s cave was uneventful, it was like the one he had been in himself half way up a cliff, but it was bigger than the one he had been in, Tik said nothing as they reached the entrance but merely gestured for him to enter, the first thought that entered Jack’s mind was ‘This has to be the first time any human has been taken home by an alien girl’ it was so out of left field that he nearly laughed when he thought it, but as he stepped inside all the jokes went out of his head, the walls were decorated with various skulls of creatures she’d killed and the floor had various skins and furs thrown on it like rugs, on one side there was a makeshift tanning rack and a drying rack for meat, next to it a fire pit with a pot for cooking, on the other and this took up a huge amount of room was a massive bed that looked like it could easily hold at least four large people with no problem, it was made of huge tree limbs and covered again In rather soft looking furs,  
“Love what you’ve done with the place” Jack said sarcastically without thinking, he could have kicked himself the second that the words left his mouth, luckily for him Tik didn't understand human sarcasm yet and took it as a compliment,   
“Thank you Ack” she simply said causing him to breathe a sigh of relief,   
“So now we’re here now what?” he asked,  
“Food and rest” Tik replied and pointed to the cooking pot, he nodded and right on queue his stomach rumbled loudly.


	7. Calm Before the Storm

Tik eleth closed the entrance to the cave off with a rather large piece of wood plunging the entire into darkness, her thermal vision gave her perfect vision in her but it was obvious to her that her new ooman ally couldn’t see as he stood perfectly still in the pitch blackness as to not tip over anything. Moving past him in the dark caused him to flinch and look in her direction, she admired his reflexes as they appeared to be finely tuned, she watched him tilting his head to use his hearing to locate her rather than using his eyes which was smart, using a small plasma torch that she’d managed to salvage with one or two other things from her ship she lit the tallow candles that she’d set up around the cave, after the first one was lit he instantly locked his vision onto her and watched her as she walked around lighting the others, pretty soon the cave was more than adequately lit for them both to see properly.   
Jack watched as Tik lit the homemade candles with a small plasma torch, finally she seemed happy that there was enough light for them to see, then she walked over to a small rack that he hadn’t noticed initially when he’d entered, it was just to the right of her skull display, then she started removing her weapons and placing them on varying places on the rack, first was the large sword on her back, now he had time to study it a bit he could see that the hand was ornately decorated with tribal style insignias made in what appeared to be some form of ivory, the main handle itself appeared to be a gold like metal but from the way the light changed its color as it moved he could tell that it wasn't real gold but looked like something far stronger. The sword followed by two rather long daggers from the base of her spine, these reminded him of her wrist mounted blades in shape and size but with rather well made handles made from bone, then the shoulder cannon that she had mounted on her armor was removed and set on a small stand, the only thing that she kept on her body was the set of wrist blades that she had.  
He felt a connection in this action as he even when he was at home never slept without his knife nearby, he felt totally naked without at least one weapon in arms reach, it was a reflex born of years of sleeping in hostile territory and in the field, then much to his surprise she unclipped two valves to the left of her mask and slowly pulled it from her face.  
Jack had been trying to imagine what she looked like underneath that thing but the reality was far more surprising that he’d imagined, she had four mandibles tucked into the side of her jaw which he guessed doubled as some sort of cheeks, he could instantly tell now where the clicking noise she made came from as there were four small teeth or tusks if you could call them that at the end of each mandible, her jaw itself was quite narrow and rather feminine in its shape, she didn't appear to have a visible nose above the mandibles but a long sloping piece that led up between her eyes and what eyes she had. They were large and bright purple that shone with an almost inner light but screamed with a deep intelligence, a rather large brow over hung her eyes that led to a large broad forehead that was almost like a crest with ridges crossing over it that almost looked like small smooth and shiny abdominal muscles, she had some sort of tattoo in the center of her cranial ridges that he guessed was some sort of clan mark, her long dread locks were connected to the edges of the cranial ridge and hung down over her broad shoulders and her strong back, to many humans if not all of them she would have been considered a monster, they’d have taken one look at her and screamed in fear but Jack didn't see that at all, what he saw was a strong, very proud and exotically beautiful woman brimming with confidence and untold skills and the more he saw the more he found himself wanting to see, he found himself almost desperate to know everything about her.  
Before he could stop himself Jack let out two words under his breath but it was a powerful pair, “So Beautiful” he breathed without thinking.  
Tik eleth froze solid as she was placing her new mask down, had she just heard that correctly? her hearing was pin sharp from years of honing and training but she could have just sworn that she’d heard Ack say the word beautiful under his breath, he couldn't have been referring to her surely?   
She quickly finished placing the hunting mask down and turned to face Ack who she found to be looking right at her, immediately he changed skin color for some reason, his entire face seemed to go bright red in color and it flowed from his face down his neck, this instantly surprised Tik eleth as she didn't know that oomans could change their skin color at will like that and it intrigued her, for the first time she studied Ack’s facial features with her own eyes, his jaw was strong and square, then those unusual but rather fetching fleshy things keep his sharp warriors teeth hidden from her view, which made her a little disappointed as she kinda like the way they looked as they were sharp and fierce looking, he also had a flattened nose in the center of his face that looked like it had been broken more than once, this was sat between the sharpest and most piercing blue eyes that she’d ever seen in her life, over his right eye and was a deep scar that led from his cheek upwards over the eye and onto a rather smooth and small forehead, the rest of his head was covered in a thick layer of light brown fur with swirls of blonde thrown in here and there, all in all he was no-where near as repulsive as she was led to believe oomans were, now that she had chance to examine him a bit she actually thought that his looks were rather exotic but no-where near repulsive, she found herself admiring the scar on his eye and wondering how he got it, also she found herself wondering if he had anymore, in her culture scars were a symbol of a victory in a battle hard fought and she already knew that he was battle worn.   
They stared at each other for a few moments when Jack decided to break the awkward silence,  
“Err so what’s to eat? I’m kinda starved” he said fidgeting awkwardly on his feet like a naughty schoolboy, what the hell was going on with him, he’d never been like felt like this ever, he was known as iceberg among his fellow soldiers for his impeccable ability to keep his cool regardless of what was facing him down and yet here this strange alien huntress had him all hot under the collar and as flustered as hell just by looking at him with those amazing bright purple eyes of hers.  
His words seemed to snap Tik out of her trance and suddenly she was the one looking all flustered and it turned into a flurry of movement which confused the hell out of Jack, she rapidly turned and headed for the drying rack and she snatched up some small animals that looked like some sort of rather large lizards that had unusually colorful hides,   
“Shimmer lizard” she said holding them up for him to see, he nodded,   
“Great, right now I could literally a horse” he said as his stomach growled again as if to make his point, just before she turned to start preparing the food he could have sworn he saw Tik draw her mandibles up into a smile,   
“No horse only shimmer lizard” she said with an amused tone or what he hoped was an amused tone to her voice, Jack chuckled softly to himself,  
“Sorry, human expression, it means that I am very hungry” he said, Tik clicked her mandibles together and appeared to shake her head,  
“Oomans confusing” he could have sworn he heard her mumble under her breath, he decided that since he was going to be spending some time here he might as well get comfortable,   
“I’m just going to check my weapons over ok?” he asked as he didn't want his actions to miscued as an act of hostility, she simply turned her head and nodded, so removing the large sniper rifle Jack decided to sit on the floor next to the massive bed on one of the massive fur rugs, weapon checks always calmed his mind and he was hoping it would work here, so he dropped himself down and removed both his weapons as well as his armor.  
Jack expertly stripped the AS50 down to its bare components and began checking each part, fortunately one of the things he’d found in his pouches of many things was weapon cleaning kit, these were essential to every real soldier but were usually under appreciated by either wanna-be’s or part timers, proper weapon maintenance was especially important with something as finely tuned as the AS50 as it could fire over such a long range that even a light compromise to it could cause it to miss by yards.  
So as Tik worked diligently in preparing their meal he cleaned each and every component of the massive rifle before reassembling and checking the weapon, the he did the same to the Desert Eagle all the time completely unaware of Tik watching him fascinated by his diligence to the maintenance of his weapons, this fascinated her as it was something that was expected of all Yaujta hunters and huntresses, but she never expected this sort of behavior from an ooman and she found herself rather impressed, in fact he’d done nothing but impress her since she’d set eyes on him and he’d taken down the giant lizard, it was like nearly everything she’d been taught about his kind was untrue, she’d been led to believe that they were an uneducated prey species that had little or no potential and no understanding of honor, but seemed to have rather good luck, but what she’d seen him do was not luck, it was diligence to one’s craft and a deep level of intensive training just like she herself had received, now she couldn't speak for others of his kind but this one certainly understood honor as he had conducted himself with honor both towards her and towards his prey, as she watched his skilled hands working over his weapons some rather strange thoughts about other things he could do with those dexterous graceful hands entered her head and instantly startled the hell out of her, ‘No he’s not Yaujta! Be gone foul thoughts stop clouding my head, I will not dishonor my clan or myself in such a way!’ she screamed at herself in her head giving herself a mental slapping, she instantly put the brief transgression down to her hunger and to her tiredness which had caught up her since she’d had to stay awake the entire night while watching for Ack to move from his sleep, instantly she threw herself back into her work.  
Jack finished up his weapon checks by doing an ammo count, as a sniper he didn't believe in solving a problem with vigorous expenditure of ammunition, one shot worked wonders and he still had plenty for now.   
“Right that’s done, is it ok if I store my weapons over on that rack with yours?” he asked Tik who had her back to him while vigorously skinning and cooking the lizards, it seemed that Yaujta threw themselves completely into whatever they did if Tik was anything to go by, she glanced at him and gave him a gesture that he took as an ok, so he carried his guns over and placed them on the rack next to hers, then he couldn't help but stop and admire the craftsmanship of Tik’s weapons, it was obvious that he herself took pride in her weapons as he could see that they too were perfectly maintained, her long daggers were perfectly oiled and looked like they were sharp enough to cut a passing fly in half if it so much as glanced at the edge of the blade, he was going to say something about it but he could see that Tik was busy and decided to pass on it and returned to his seat silently, but as he sat there he kept finding his eyes drawn to her strong broad back, he loved the way the light from the candles seemed to be absorbed by her natural camouflage colored skin and the way it seemed to create and almost shadow like aura around her, he found himself wondering if that was why they were called the Shadow Claw clan? Because the shadows clung to her like a shroud making his eyes have to work even harder to truly see her, his eyes wandered down from her large shoulders over her broad back to her shapely feminine hips and her feminine rear before he suddenly realized what he was doing and was forced to give himself yet another mental slap, what the hell had gotten into him? He truly didn't have a clue but he was going to have to reign it in before it wound up getting him into a world of very painful shit, because he really didn't think that Tik was going to really appreciate being stared at like that by him.  
It wasn't long before Tik was done with her cooking and presented Jack with a rather sizable plate full of cut and boiled roots and lizard meat, he thanked her politely for the meal and accepted it, he instantly found himself fascinated in how she was going to eat without cheeks to hold the food in, but he knew that staring at her while she ate would be a death sentence, so he picked up the utensils that’d she provided him and noticed that they were handmade, they were expertly carved from bone and had been polished with something so much that they actually shone. He started to eat quietly and made sure that he intently stared at his plate the entire time, blissfully unaware of the fact that the very same curiosity was eating at a certain female Yaujta on how he would eat without mandibles to control the food, but she was a being of honor and staring at one’s guests while they ate was not an honorable thing to do so she too stared at her plate while she ate.  
Much to his surprise the food was actually rather delicious, Tik had spiced the meat with some sort of concoction that really burst with flavor as he ate, he just hoped it wasn't going to kill him in the long run, as he finished he looked at Tik and when she caught his eye he smiled at her flashing her his best smile which caused her brows to go up, then much to his own surprise something incredibly cheesy came out of his mouth,  
“That was delicious my compliments to the chef and huntress who provided for us” he said having no fucking idea where that came from, but it seemed to strike a chord because Tik clicked her mandibles together making the happy click, “Ack is well mannered” she said simply then she stood up and took his empty plate to wash them up for some reason she couldn't understand smiling the entire time.  
Now it was time for them to get some sleep and this led to a bit of a dilemma, as not only where was Ack going to sleep, a momentary thought about allowing him to share her bed was vigorously chased from her mind by reason wielding a big stick, but also Tik eleth liked to sleep naked and there was no way she would strip off completely in the presence of a male who was not her mate, in her culture it wasn’t frowned upon in fact rather the opposite, but it was more of a personal comfort thing with her, she didn’t feel it was right to expose yourself in such a way to someone that you didn't have a truly intimate relationship with, as at least then you wouldn't be exposing yourself to mockery, with her hang ups about the way her body looked she really didn’t feel like having an ooman start mocking her for how short she was, how small her limbs were, how unfeminine her hips were and how so obviously unattractive she was compared to her much taller and far more attractive peers, but much to her surprise Ack solved both her dilemmas himself.  
“Right well, I guess it’s about time we get some rest and I don’t know about you but I feel like I could sleep for a thousand years, so I’ll take the floor with those rather comfortable looking rugs of yours, oh and would you like me to step out for a moment do that you can get yourself changed for sleep as I’m only guessing here and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but I doubt Yaujta sleep in their battle armor” he said looking at her right in the eyes, his honorable conduct yet again surprised Tik eleth,  
“Ack is willing to step out while I change?” she asked curiously, he nodded,   
“Of course, it’s not right for a man to spy on a lady while she changes for bed, especially so being a guest in her home, I’m a gentleman I’ll have you know” he said flashing his sharp teeth at her again, she was really starting to like when he did that,  
“Entleman?” she asked sounding confused,  
“Oh right sorry human term, it’s used to describe a man who conducts himself properly, honorably and with respect in the presence of a woman” he said,   
Tik eleth clicked her mandibles in thought of this, the Yaujta had nothing like that be she had to admit she liked the concept of it and Ack had already proven himself to be honorable, she was beginning to believe that the males of her kind could learn a lot from this ooman, she nodded and gave him a gesture of thanks, he nodded and got up and left the cave simply saying   
“Call me when you are ready” as he left.  
The more she learned the more she liked this ooman, he was a special breed and she knew that with his help she would finally leave this foul rock of a planet and return to her clan, she also vowed to herself that she would honor her word to return him to his clan also, she began to strip off her armor as she thought about home, she left on the bare essentials just enough to cover her modesty as she readied herself for bed, then she blew out all but two of the candles before calling for Jack to return, she was in her bed under the furs as he entered, he gave her a flash of his teeth that made her heart jump, again that thought of inviting him to the bed ran through her mind before being chased back out, he turned and blew out the final two candles plunging the cave into darkness, she could see him moving over to the part of the floor he’d chosen to sleep, then she heard him settle himself on the floor and rearrange the furs to get comfortable, “Good night Tik sleep well” he said from the shadows, this confused her but she figured that it must be a ooman thing so she decided to return it,   
“Goodnight Ack” she said then she settled herself down a bit, it wasn't long before she could hear the pitch of Ack’s breathing change and she knew that he was asleep, but for some reason sleep refused to claim her as well, it felt like there was something that was left undone then she remembered what she hadn't done that day, so silently she slid out of the bed being careful not to disturb the sleeping ooman on her floor, silently she retrieved her mask and clipped it to her face and instantly the night vision kicked in and the room lit up, then she sat back on the bed and pulled out her diary and quill before retrieving a small vial of shimmer lizard blood from behind the bed, she took out her quill and dipped it and began to write.  
She kept find herself stuck on what to really say about the last day or two hitting something the scribes she’d known often referred to as writers wall or was it block?   
So she decided to do something that she often did when she found herself stuck and just to let her subconscious mind do the work, she would place her quill to the page and let her mind go blank, she would go into a self-induced mediatory trance by slowing her breathing and her heart and at some point her sub conscious mind would realize that it suddenly had free reign to express itself and the quill would begin to move on its own.  
After about half an hour she brought herself out of the self-induced mediatory trance and she looked down at the diary and discovered to her surprise that she had written four full pages, she flipped back and began to read what she had written and her eyes went as large as dinner plates as she realized that she had written three complete pages about her new ooman ally and also a poem about his valiant victory over the giant lizard, she placed her quill into its place as a page break and closed the book with her hands shaking slightly, she placed the diary and the vial back into its place behind her bed and laid down under her covers while she stared at the ceiling, these couldn't be her most inner thoughts surly? The words on the pages confused her deeply but as she thought more on them sleep crept in and clubbed her over the head and dragged her down into the realm of dreams where her sub conscious mind had some more surprises waiting for her.


	8. Unexpected Bonds

The next couple of days were rather uneventful so they spent the time getting to know each other better. Jack told her a bit about his life back on earth and what he did for a living, “So you hunt other oomans?” she asked sounding confused by the premise of him hunting his own species,   
“In a sense yes, but only bad guys it isn't for sport” he said, now she looked even more confused by this, so he thought of a way to make her understand, “I hunt down the ooman equivalent of bad bloods” he said, this got Tik’s mandibles clicking rapidly,  
“So Ack is like an adjudicator?” she asked, he didn't know what that was but he guessed it was a Yaujta law enforcer so he nodded, Tik clicked happily at this, “Then Ack has a role of honor among his people” she said, it was more a statement than a question, after finding this out about him she seemed to open up a lot more to him and began to tell him of tales from her clan, pretty much every one of them involved a hunter or huntress surpassing insurmountable odds to bring down their prey, but the way she told them with such passion and fire Jack found himself becoming enthralled, to his amazement she was actually quite a good story teller and some of the stories had him totally immersed like the one about a Yaujta huntress who had her cubs snatched by bad bloods and she fought off an entire clan single handily to retrieve them, she told it with such passion that Jack could smell the blood from the legions she disemboweled to rescue her cubs, plus he made a mental not to never piss off a Yaujta mama bear.  
After a bit of pushing by the curious huntress he told her a few stories of his own hunts back on earth, he told her how he and his team had hunted war criminals in the middle east and the odds they’d over come to bring them to justice, much to his surprise she was actually enthralled by this, it seemed to him that Yaujta lived through their stories, to them it was like a living history which made kinda made sense.

Tik eleth found Ack’s life on earth exhilarating, his tales of his hunts of dangerous and deadly ooman bad bloods were filled with honorable acts and intense fighting and struggle, tracking your prey for miles through mountains and caves to corner your prey and make them answer for the things they’d done, it made her smile as she thought about him tracking his prey to a dark cave in a desolate mountain range and making a swift and honorable kill, this made her wonder though what trophies he would have collected over his years, she would have to talk him through her collection one day and then maybe in return he could tell her of his.  
Ack’s presence also had an added benefit, now that she had someone to help her she figured she could finally bathe, it would have been impossible with all the threats on this planet to do such a thing as you would be completely vulnerable, but with a seasoned warrior to prevent attack she would be able to finally able to get herself clean, though when she had asked him he had changed that funny red color again, she still found it interesting that oomans could change color at will, she wondered what it meant and she wondered if they changed to any other colors.  
Jack couldn't believe that he was doing this, he was stood on a rock sweeping the forest with his rifle, behind him he could hear the roaring water of the small waterfall that Tik had brought him to, when she’d told him that she was going to bathe and she wanted him to watch over her his head had nearly burst, in fact it took his addled brain a moment to reconstruct her words so that he realized that she wanted him to watch out for threats and not to actually watch her bathe.  
So now while Tik splashed about in the water below him Jack was stood on a rock watching the forest through his scope trying desperately to override his instincts to sneak a peek, he failed miserably and he glanced down at her just as she was bending down to pick some moss to scrub herself with, his head nearly burst again.  
She had a massive broad back with strong solid looking muscles running up it, this lead down into very curvy hips and a surprisingly feminine and very pert rear, which led into legs that just seemed to go on forever, her natural camouflage skin totally enthralled him and he found himself studying the swirls and patterns that covered her and his breath caught in his throat, then just as he found he couldn't tear his eyes off her she glanced over her shoulder at him and he snapped his head back to his scope so fast his neck clicked.

Tik eleth felt eyes on her and she glanced up at Ack who was on a rock with his projectile weapon, his head seemed to move fast and she could have sworn that she heard a loud click from him, as she watched him for a second he scanned the forest with his rifle, she smiled at how diligent at his task he was, then the thought that he may have been watching her crossed her mind, but surprisingly it didn't come with the outrage that should have accompanied such a thought, then another thought popped into her head and she chased it right back out, she did not want him to watch her! Did she?

After she was done bathing she felt a million times better, it was wonderful to feel clean again, then after she dressed herself she headed over to Ack, “I am done, now it is your turn and I will keep watch” she said up to him, he looked own at her from his perch,   
“My turn?” he asked, she nodded and clicked her mandibles,  
“To bathe” she said and watched in fascination as his face went deathly white followed by a bright read and then purple, so oomans could do more colors!  
“Umm ok” he said and climbed down from the rock, she clambered up to take the station he had just occupied and he went to the water.  
Jack took his clothes off and looked at the water, is did not look warm or inviting but he supposed that he did kinda smell like a three-day old sock, so it was probably a good idea to get some of this off him, but it was still gonna suck but that didn't stop him collecting moss just like she had.

From her perch on the rock Tik eleth watched the forest, she could hear Ack splashing about in the water, he kept saying an odd name for some reason, she didn't know who this ‘Jesus Christ’ was but he must be important, though she didn't know why he was relevant or related to bathing, just another question she’d have to ask him later on.  
She kept having an odd temptation to look at him while he bathed that she kept chasing from her mind, but eventually while she was distracted by some large flying creatures the thought invaded her mind by stealth and over rode her actions and she looked. Ack was well built having a large strong back, his pink white skin was covered in a patch work of scars that ran all over his back in different directions, as her eyes followed this down over his masculine back to his slender hips she noticed that he had a large scar on his left rather firm looking buttock, his legs were stout looking with well-muscled thighs and toned calves that told her that he was not adverse to lots of walking or running, presumably from chasing his prey down, in fact he was very well built for an ooman with a physique that a male could be proud of, suddenly she felt rather hot under the collar again as she realized what she was doing and just as she was about to turn so did he, her head snapped back to the forest so quick her dreadlocks flew around in an arc.  
Once the bathing was done both of them returned to the cave as it was getting dark, they’d had a successful hunt yesterday so they had plenty of meat for that night, while Tik prepared the food Jack found himself looking over her trophy collection, she had quite a few varying skulls from the creatures here, but one caught his eye the most, it was like a massive canine skull that reminded him of the wolves they’d fought, but only a lot larger.  
“Marabi wolf” Tik’s voice said from behind him, for someone so large she really did move like a ninja,   
“Bet there’s a good story behind him” he said pointing at the skull, Tik nodded and drew her mandibles up into a smile obviously happy that he wanted to hear one of her hunting stories, “I tell it over our meal” she said, he nodded happily, he really enjoyed her stories and actually found himself looking forwards to it.

After their meal and Tik reviled him with how she’d brought down the massive wolf with nothing but a wooden spear and her daggers by getting on its back from a rock and almost riding it halfway across the jungle, they both made themselves ready for bed, as he came back in after letting her change he closed up the cave and got into his bed, Tik was busy writing in her diary again, he found it intriguing that she chose to do this with an old traditional quill rather than use her tech, but he did find it rather endearing, he found himself smiling as he settled down to sleep, “Goodnight Tik” he said,  
“Goodnight Ack” she relied before putting her diary away, it had been a good day today and as she lay down sleep claimed her swiftly.

Tik eleth growled loudly and dropped into her fighting stance, then without a warning she leapt forwards grabbing him throwing him over, but with surprising strength he was able to twist and flip her weight spinning her on to her back, then with all his strength he pinned her down pushing her hands above her head, she heard him give a throaty growl in her ear that sent shivers down her spine and she felt his weight pressing down on her body, suddenly she didn't want to fight him anymore and she did something she never thought she'd ever do, she submitted.   
She felt him push himself roughly inside her and take her, she felt him begin to move but when she looked up at the male who had claimed her as his, she saw not a male Yaujta, but Ack's bright blue eyes staring back at her.  
Tik eleth sat bolt upright in her bed panting heavily, she clutched her hand to her breast holding the skins she used as a blanket to her chest, her heart was pounding as she looked around herself. She was still alone in her bed and instantly she looked at Ack, he was still wrapped in the skins he was using as a blanket and was snoring softly. Her heart gradually slowed its blistering pace in her chest, the dream had felt so real and so vivid that she almost put her hand between her legs to check that she had indeed not been taken. It was at that point she noticed just how hot and bothered she felt, in fact her most sacred place felt like it was on fire and felt like it was leaking, there was also a very unusual sweet smell in the air, it reminded her of terilion spice wine in its sweet spicy smell, for a second she wondered what it was till she realized that it also seemed to be coming from her.   
Sitting there in utter confusion Tik eleth tried to figure out what the hell was happening to her, finally she laid back down in her bed and put her arms behind her head, but every time she tried to close her eyes her head filled with images of the strange ooman laid on her floor, what the hell had he done to her? These thoughts were so completely wrong, she could not disgrace herself or her clan like that, she would not, she'd been raised to be a proud strong Yaujta huntress and she would not dishonor herself, but try as she might the maelstrom of thoughts in her head simply got stronger, till only her exhaustion pulled her back into sleep.  
Jack woke in the morning to see daylight creeping around the edge of the cave entrance, for a moment he had absolutely no clue where he was, he sat up in his makeshift bed and looked around in the gloom, his eyes were instantly drawn to the large sleeping shape in the massive bed and it all came flooding back to him. Tik was snoring lightly as she slept, as he watched her he saw her grip the skin she was using as a blanket and he heard her mumble something, he couldn't understand what she said as it was in a strange language which he guessed was Yaujta but whatever she said he heard his name being said at the end of it.  
As he watched her his head was suddenly flooded with all sorts of imagery, he shook his head to clear it, 'I need some air and a piss' he thought to himself, he stealthily got to his feet and moved to the cave exit, slowly he moved the large piece of wood blocking the entrance as to not wake the sleeping huntress, once that was done he stepped outside.  
As he stood relieving himself over the edge of the ledge on to the canopy of the jungle below Jack heard an ear splitting shriek that made him jump so badly he nearly tore his own cock off, then there was series of gunshots that stopped abruptly, this was rapidly followed by another ear splitting shriek, putting himself away he quickly ran back into the cave, this proved to be rather a stupid idea as it turned out.

Bursting into the cave Jack headed straight for his weapons, but before he could even get halfway a massive shape hit him from the side knocking him to the ground and pinning him down on his back with a large weight on his hips and a hand on his throat, an angry clicking noise from above him and the flash of two blades in front of his eyes told him who it was,   
"T-T-Tik it’s me Jack!!" he spluttered through the hand holding his throat shut, it seems that startling a sleeping blooded Yaujta huntress awake was not the smartest move.  
Tik eleth released her grip on the throat of the fast moving shadow as it revealed itself to be her ooman ally, "Ack?" She asked to be sure,  
"Yeah" he said coughing as his lungs filled with air,  
"Why you run Ack?" She asked confused while retracting her wrist blades and sitting back,  
"There some shit going down outside, screeches and gunshots which I'm guessing is not a good sign" he said, Tik's brow instantly furrowed,   
"How close?" She asked,   
"Not far maybe half a mile at the most" he said, she thought about this deeply for a moment scratching under mandibles as she thought,  
"Err not to be a mood killer here but if you wouldn't mind" he said patting her rather large thigh gently, Tik's eyes suddenly widened as she realized that she was knelt straddled over him with her weight on his hips.  
Tik burst up off him like a live grenade had gone off under her and Jack sat up, "Thanks" he said quickly getting to his feet, Tik said nothing as he rapidly went to the weapon rack and picked up his weapons, then he turned and rapidly picked up his armour throwing it on over his head doing the clips up as he did, to his left Tik was doing the same with her own armor, as he quickly exited through the entrance to the cave he was trying to scrub the feeling of how hot her crotch had felt against his own and also just how comfortable he'd felt underneath her from his mind.  
Jack lay flat scanning the jungle with his rifle scope, at first he saw nothing but then as he watched he spotted a series of fast moving black things, at first he thought they might be more of the ugly fucking wolves that he and Tik had fought yesterday, that was until one of them went straight up a tree and jumped, he counted at least four of them and whatever they were they were big.  
Tik eleth emerged from the cave with her armor on and her mask in place, she looked at Ack who was laid flat on his stomach with his weapon against his shoulder looking through the large scope on top of it.   
"I got four fast moving targets" he said quietly,   
"Wolves?" She asked,   
"Not unless they learned how to climb trees" he replied not taking his eyes of the jungle,   
"Wolves not climb trees" she replied crouching down next to him, she started scanning the jungle with her thermal vision but she saw nothing,   
"I don't see them" she said,  
"About quarter of a mile out in this direction, follow my rifle line" Jack said, pointing forwards, Tik followed his line of sight but still saw nothing but then she heard something that made her blood run cold, a loud screech echoed through the jungle, instantly she flicked her visor to the only other working spectrum and she straight away saw them and her heart sunk,  
"Kiande amedha" she breathed.  
"What?" Jack asked as he heard her say the name in her own tongue,   
"It means hard meat in your tongue" she said, "Hard meat?" He asked sounding confused,   
"They are one of the most perfect hunters to exist, they kill everything they encounter, young bloods hunt them to prove themselves to their clan, but how did they get here?" she said,  
"Did the bad bloods bring them?" Jack asked, she considered this for a moment, it would explain the larger cages that were dropped along with the others of Jack's kind in fact their inclusion now made sense, as if they bred in the oomans then the resulting warriors would be bigger and faster not to mention harder to kill,   
" So what's the plan?" Jack asked her, she looked him and saw that he was looking at her, "We hunt them and we kill them" she said,   
"Works for me" he replied.  
Jack and Tik secured the cave before making their way down into the jungle, as Tik tracked Jack followed behind and watched her back. As Jack watched the jungle he wondered just what could get someone as powerful as Tik so rattled, even though she didn't show it Jack was beginning to notice subtle things in her body language that seemed to speak volumes to him for some reason, right now he could see the visible tenseness in the huntress and that in turn made him tense.   
Whatever these things were for them to rattle Tik he knew that they had to be bad, he kept his head firmly on the swivel scanning the forest and given that he knew that they could climb trees he made a point of scanning the canopy as they moved.  
Pretty soon they came across a rather grisly scene, the first thing that caught Jack's attention was a luminous green pile of smoking jelly, as he went to poke it with the gun barrel he was startled as Tik grabbed the end of it, as he looked at her confused she held up a stick, then as he watched she touched the stick to the green jelly and he watched in horror and fascination as the stick fizzed and promptly dissolved.  
"Holy shit, nice save" Jack breathed looking from the stick to Tik, she nodded and let go of the gun barrel, they both continued to check the scene and that’s when Jack noticed the dead human sat against a tree with a hole through its chest.  
Jack moved slowly over to the body, it was the body of a young blonde woman in her mid-twenties by Jack's guess, she was dressed in the uniform of the US military, by the stripes on her arm she was a sergeant and by her shoulder flash a Marine. Jack looked at her face and could see that it was frozen in a twisted mask of pain and fear, what caught his attention the most was the fact her ribs seemed to have burst outward, he figured something big had hit her in the back but then he noticed the wound didn't go all the way through, it was like something burst out of her chest.  
On the floor next to the body was a SAW or Squad Automatic Weapon, this little light machine gun packed a hell of a punch for such a small gun, he figured that given that she really didn't need it he decided that he'd be a fool to leave it behind, but first there was something he had to do. Taking his left hand, he gently closed the young woman's eyes,   
"Rest well soldier your fight is done" he said gently,  
then slowly he removed her dog tags from around her neck and placed them in his pocket, after a moment's respect paid he removed her ammo from her pouches and retrieved her weapon.   
Tik eleth watched Jack as he paid respect to a fallen soldier, even though he never known her he paid her respect, this display made her think of how her own kind paid respect to their own fallen, so in that she stayed silent while he did what he had to do as he had shown her customs respect so now she would for his. As soon as he was done he shouldered his AS50 and picked up the SAW and checked it over, then he turned to look at Tik who was watching him curiously, he simply gestured that they should move on, she nodded they indicated a trail of blood and what appeared to be drag marks in the ground,   
" Caught second ooman" she said,   
"Well then let’s see where they went" he said and with that they both moved off.  
Following the trail wasn't difficult, it led them on a winding trail through the forest, but finally they arrived at what appeared to be a large cave network, suddenly Tik stopped and Jack did the same, "Whatcha got?" he asked quietly,   
"No sounds" Tik said, at first he thought that she meant for him to shut up, but then he realized what she meant, the jungle had gone deadly silent even the insects had shut the fuck up.  
They both started scanning left and right with their weapons? "I smell a trap" Jack said quietly as he turned his back to her to scan behind them,   
"I also sense a trap" she replied quietly, it happened out of nowhere, in the blink of an eye about ten or twelve of the ugliest looking creatures he'd ever seen burst out of the forest instantly followed by another load out of the cave.  
"Ambush!!!" Jack roared opening up on the ones coming from the rear with the SAW, he heard Tik's plasma cannon going hell for leather behind him as she opened up on the ones coming out of the cave, they were instantly surrounded, the bugs were stupid fast and were running circles around them as they fired, Jack got a few hits in dropping three in quick succession and Tik got another four, but they were closing fast from every angle, Jack's mind raced, but then he had an idea, it was crazy but it might just work, "We're gonna be overrun!! Run for the cave, funnel them to us!!" He yelled, Tik started running for the cave entrance swiftly followed by Jack.  
Once inside they both turned and fired on the bugs as they scrambled through the narrow cave entrance, the bugs were shredded as they tried to enter the cave, suddenly out of no-where Tik got knocked forwards but instantly she whirled around and drew her wrist blades, the bug turned to jump at her again only to be cut down by Tik's wrist blades, suddenly another six of them came out of the dark, everything seemed to go into slow motion, Jack stopped firing as his weapon ran dry, instantly he dropped to change the belt, as he watched he couldn't believe his eyes, Tik was swinging her sword and wrist blades left and right in what could be described as the most graceful and amazing display he'd ever seen, she cut through them left and right as she whirled and twisted, it was almost like she was dancing and he almost stopped to watch her, but then his mind slapped him to get back in the fight and bloody help her, he'd just finished loading when disaster struck. 

Three of them got in a few rapid hits on Tik from all sides drawing bright glowing green blood from her, then one smashed into her back hard enough to knock her down hard, Tik's head bounced off the stone with a sickening thud which put a nice dent in her mask, the three of them went to grab the stricken huntress suddenly upon seeing this all those strange thoughts and feelings he'd been having flooded his mind in one go, he knew that it was happening so very quickly and he’d only known her for such a very short period of time but this had been lurking in the back of his mind since he first clapped his eyes on her, most people would have scoffed not only at this situation but also what he was feeling, but he realized that he just didn't care anymore, everything made complete sense to him and he wasn't going to fight it anymore, something in Jack snapped completely.  
Tik eleth tried to move but her limbs refused to co-operate, she saw the three Kiande amedha closing in on her with their fangs bared and their jaws dripping their foul saliva everywhere, she prayed for a swift death, the alternative was too horrifying to contemplate and she would not be host to one of those abominations, her vision was pulsing in and out and she knew she would lose consciousness soon, but then something completely unexpected happened, there was a massive roar of pure rage that echoed around the cave but sounded oddly familiar to her,   
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER YOU SICK FUCKS!!!!!" Ack's voice roared in a guttural roar of primal rage, then two of the three Kiande amedha were shredded in front of her eyes falling dead on the ground before her, the third turned to look for the assailant only to be picked up by its tail and swung like a club, it was promptly thrown down the cave towards the others, suddenly Ack was standing over her with one foot planted on each side of her body protecting her, his face was twisted into a mask of pure rage, those sharp warriors teeth of his were bared in a vicious snarl, his eyes were burning in the purest sapphire blue she'd ever seen but with pure hate, he was firing on the rest of the Kiande amedha at the entrance to the cave, "You won't get her you fucks!!!! You fuckers won't take the woman I love from me!!!!!! SHE IS MINE!!!!!!" he roared in a voice of pure primal rage, Tik eleth couldn't believe it, this ooman, this beautiful amazing honorable complicated ooman had just declared his love for her! Not one of her own kind had ever seen her worth, not one had ever so much as paid her a compliment, not one male of her own kind had ever even looked at her twice, but not him he'd looked at her once and instantly knew her. In the shortest space imaginable somehow this ooman had fallen in love with her and had just declared it to the world for all to hear, now he was stood over her fighting not to survive himself but for her to live!  
A bubble suddenly sprung up in her chest and it grew rapidly, it was a feeling so rare to her that she almost didn't know what it was, but it was joy, pure joy.  
That was the last thought that entered her head before her world went black and she lost consciousness.


	9. Confessions

Pure seething hatred mixed with raw anger and fear drove Jack into a frenzy, everything he saw was tinted in the purest red he’d ever seen in his life, there were eight of those creatures left at the entrance of the cave, they’d dove for cover behind the rocks the second he went crazy and took out about six or seven of their number with a wave of bullets, but the creature now wearing Jack’s skin was not going to be sated till all of them lay dead. The SAW clicked dry for the second time and in a flurry of movement Jack swapped out the belts, as the gun stopped firing the eight creatures got bold and broke cover and charged him, a few seconds before they reached him Jack snapped the cocking handle back and shouldered the gun, the last thing the closest ones to him saw was the look of pure hate in those burning eyes of his, then he opened up on them turning the closest five of them into instant confetti as the bullets tore through them as he wild sprayed the whole group.  
Another one fell as it tried to get into cover, its legs and tail were torn clean off by the hail of lead that hit it, again the SAW clicked dry but this time he had no more belts to change for it so he simply threw it to one side, then drawing his handgun he knelt and took one of Tik’s long daggers from the ground by his foot, then he stepped over the unconscious huntress and headed towards where the last two bugs were hiding between the rocks.  
The first one dies in one shot as it was stupid enough to poke its head out of a gap in the rock to see what was happening, the massive round from Jack’s Desert Eagle blew most of its ugly face clean off in a shower of green goo, the second one burst out of the gap and went straight up the wall, Jack emptied the clip at it and hit nothing but rock as it deftly dodged his shots, then he got the one noise that fills every soldier with dread, the dead man’s click.  
Instantly the bug dropped off the ceiling and charged straight for him, Jack rolled out of the way only a second before it struck the floor where he’d been standing with its massive tail, but he was able to get a strike in with the long dagger as he rolled past its legs,   
“Just you and me now prick!!” he said with a voice filled with venom as he stood up,  
the creature turned and hissed at him menacingly, he noticed the massive gash he’d left in its long thin thigh, so it would be weak now on its left side, with a roar of primal rage Jack charged right at the now rather surprised creature it braced for the impact but it never came, it had been too busy looking at the body of the running man to noticed what his hands were doing, a flying dagger struck it hard in the shoulder and the force caused it to twist sideways, as it twisted back with an angry screech it found itself staring down the barrel of a rather large gun,   
“Fucking checkmate” Jack said quietly as he pulled the trigger of the AS50.  
The alien creature’s head dissolved into a cloud of acidic mist that moved with the blast of the massive gun, the body dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, looking around himself Jack noticed that the cave was now clear but for the bodies, then his eyes locked onto his fallen ally, “Tik!!” he yelled running over to her, she was unconscious and bleeding heavily from the wounds on her arms and torso, quickly he knelt down and felt for a pulse in the same place as he would on a human, he had no idea if their arteries were in the same place but he had to try, instantly he felt a pulse but it was kinda weak, “Don’t you worry girl I’m getting you out of here but first I gotta stem those bleeders” he said, rapidly he searched through his pouches for the small medical kit that he’d seen earlier, he found it quickly and opened it he had no idea if the stuff would even work on her kind but at the very least the bandages should do something, using every bandage he had in the small pack he bound up all of Tik’s wounds that he could see, her bright green blood seeped through the material but it seemed to at least have an effect.  
Jack was still operating on pure adrenaline as he was being driven by fear here, but not fear of the creatures or of attack, fear of losing Tik, this was like Afghanistan all over again.  
Afghanistan 2013  
“Are we sure these fuckers are even up here Jack?” Sargent Sandra Michaels or Sandy to everyone who wasn't shit scared of her asked in a rather bored voice, Jack glanced from his scope over to his rather bored spotter,   
“American brass seems to think so, their intelligence guys make a pretty good case” he replied looking through the high powered scope at the mouth of a cave about a mile opposite them on another mountain. Sandy snorted in response to this, “You know what Int guys are like, they see a smudge on the lens and suddenly it’s fucking Taliban” she said sounding kinda grumpy, Jack looked over at his spotter again, she was tall coming in at 6ft 1in, solid built being a weight lifter that could bench her own body weight would do that for you, right now she had her blonde hair tucked inside her camouflage hood which was more like a net headdress than a hood, she had one of her emerald green eyes closed so she could squint through her camo spotting scope mounted on its little tripod in front of her, even with the camo pain and black streaks under her eyes to knock down the sun glare Jack still thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever known and not just in the looks department.  
“You know I can feel you looking at me” she said suddenly startling him a little, she moved her head away from the scope to look at him and flashed her perfect smile at him,   
“Got bored of staring at an empty cave” Jack said with a grin, she just stuck her tongue out at him, he’d known Sandy a total of four years ever since she’d come from Delta Force to train with the SAS and had been paired up with him, he didn't know at what point exactly that they just stopped being just friends and had become lovers, it had just sort of happened, too many long cold nights hugging each other for warmth in various little observation posts or holes as they just called them and one thing had led to another, but now it was always said around the barracks that where you saw just one of them be worried as the other was watching through a scope.   
Sandy had loved working with Jack so much that she’d done selection and officially transferred to the SAS as one of the only women that had ever made it into the Elite British special forces regiment, though Jack had no doubt in his mind that she’d make it, there wasn't a man alive brave enough to tell her that she couldn't do something, real emphasis on the alive part.  
Jack smiled and shook his head as he thought about it, Sandy was the first girl he’d ever truly loved in his life, she was strong both physically and mentally, had a wicked sense of humor that would make even grizzled soldiers blush, she just seemed to have this aura of confidence around her that just drew you in and he loved it and he loved her, he was just waiting for the right moment to tell her.  
Sandy being Sandy had told him in the first five minutes of their relationship, but he’d said that when he said the words that he would mean them with all his heart and he wanted them to mean something rather than be another throw away comment, as he felt the word got used way too much in everyday life, but the longer they’d been together the harder he’d actually found that it was to make the words come out, despite the fact that he wanted to say them now, but to combat this he’d hatched a plan, before their latest tour he’d bought a ring, he’s spoken to a few waiters in their favorite restaurant in Hereford, it was all arranged, when they got back he was going to take her out for a meal once the obligatory waking up on pub floors was out of the way and he was going to bend his knee and tell the woman he loved exactly how he felt about her and exactly how much she meant to him and all of this was going to happen in just three days.  
“I got movement” Sandy said suddenly snapping Jack out of his happy little dream, he quickly aligned the rifle and looked through the scope of the powerful Barrett, a small group of individuals all dressed in a mixture of traditional Afghani dress and combat gear were in the process of emerging from the cave, they were all armed with a verity of weapons from AK47’s to RPG-7’s and even a few light machine guns,   
“Call it in” he said never taking his eyes off the group, they seemed to be setting something up on the mouth of the cave, as he watched he heard Sandy’s voice reporting to HQ what was occurring,   
“There’s a patrol inbound along the valley floor, this is most likely an ambush” she said reporting back to Jack,   
“Orders?” he asked,  
“Observe and engage only if necessary” she said, he sighed heavily, he’d known she was going to say that, suddenly Sandy spotted the patrol moving through the valley it was a patrol of American Marines, a sudden series of smoke puffs told Jack exactly what they’d been setting up,   
“They got fucking eighty-eight mortars up there!” he exclaimed at the four tubes they’d set up fired off raining death down on the Marines who were now scrambling for cover, Jack watched as a loader went to place a shell into the tube and he squeezed the trigger, the massive rifle roared and jumped, a puff of pink mist surrounded the loader and he fell dead, “Call the Marines and HQ advise them we are engaging” he said and he heard Sandy yelling into the radio as he fired off another series of shots at the mortar carriers.  
Now that they were the ones under fire the Taliban scrambled for cover among the rocks as the shells from the massive .50 kept picking off anyone stupid enough to be out in the open, he saw men pointing and watching the hills, he knew that they knew where they were but they had nothing that could reach him and Sandy way up here, or so he thought, a sudden puff of smoke and a whistling noise swiftly proved him wrong.  
“INCOMING!!” he screamed and he and Sandy went to dive for cover behind the rocks, too little too late, the round burst right between them and sent them both flying. Jack’s ears were ringing as he laid on the ground, looking over himself he was amazed to find that apart from a few minor shrapnel wounds his armor had taken the majority of it and he was pretty much fine, he rolled over grinning that was until he saw Sandy about six feet from him on the ground minus both legs, “Oh fuck Sandy no!!” he yelled scrambling over to her, she was covered in a patch work of wounds that were all bleeding heavily, “Hold on Sandy I’m gonna stem these up, you’ll be ok” he said quickly grabbing for both of their mini medical kits, “Jack?.....” Sandy said weakly coughing up blood,  
“I’m here baby girl, I’m here” he said grabbing her hand as she raised it up to him,   
“I’m so glad I met you Jack and that I got to love you” she said through a coughing fit and with that he felt her grip slacken in his hands, her chest rattled like a cage and her eyes glazed focusing into no-where,  
“No no no no no no, don’t you fucking leave me, don’t you dare go, please stay with me baby please!!” Jack started in a roar that rapidly disintegrated into a whisper as the reality hit him, he cradled the limp body of his dead lover in his arms smearing her blood all over his armor and his tunic, hot tears burst from his eyes and ran down his face cutting rivers in the dust that clung to his skin, the pain was unbearable, but then another mortar burst on the hillside above him showering him with pebbles blasted free and he knew he didn't have time to mourn right now, with one final quiet word of goodbye he laid her body down and headed back to the rifle, he proceeded to pick off every single one of the Taliban fighters one after the other, even detonating their mortars in the boxes.  
One Month Later.  
Jack stood at her grave side staring blankly at the plain white headstone, I his hand he held the Military medals that both he and she had been awarded for their bravery, his awarded in person hers posthumously. Slowly he knelt down and placed both medals side by side on the stub at the bottom of the headstone, “I’m so so sorry” he said quietly, “I’m so sorry that I never told you how I felt about you, you were the star of my life and now you’re gone and all I’m left with is a shiny piece of metal to remember you by, but I don’t want their medals or their sympathy, I just want my Sandy back if only for a second just so that I could tell you the words I knew that you were dying to hear, that I loved you Sandy with all of my heart” he said tears beginning to wind their way down his face again, “Too little too late” he said stoking the bright white stone.   
He spent an hour just sitting by the grave working up the courage to leave, but as he did he took one last look at the stone and he heard a voice in his head, ‘Never forget and never repeat’ it said in what sounded like Sandy’s voice, he whirled around half expecting her to be stood there with that massive pearly white grin of hers, but there was no-one and his heart sunk, but suddenly he knew exactly what it meant, “I swear it Sandy, if I ever fall in love again I’ll never hold back, I’ll make sure that she knows it right from the off exactly how I feel for her, I won’t wait till it’s too late ever again, I swear it” he said looking at the grave stone, with that he turned and walked off never to revisit.

Present Day.  
Once he’d thankfully managed to stabilize and bind up Tik’s multitude of wounds the bleeding finally stopped, now he had the job of getting her back to the cave out of harm’s way, so with a bit of ingenuity a few branches and some very strong vines he managed to rig a drag along stretcher together, though getting Tik onto it wasn't as easy as he’d hoped it would be as he had to be very careful not to reopen her bound wounds, he was hoping that she’d have something back at the cave which he could use to help her, as dead weight Tik weighed a ton and trying to lift her to put her onto the stretcher wasn't easy in any way shape or form, but finally with a lot of swearing and effort he was able to pick her up under the armpits and he was able to drag her onto the makeshift stretcher.  
The trip through the jungle dragging the unconscious huntress on the stretcher took everything Jack had and then some, but he flat out refused to quit on her, now he was being driven not by fear or by anger, but by a recently discovered feeling, love.  
He still couldn't believe it himself but when he’d seen her go down in the cave it had burst out of the shadows of his mind like a rampaging bull and had knocked him over the edge, all the strange feelings he’d been having all the flustered looks and the blushing, he’d fallen for her so completely that it had consumed his soul like a fire, he didn't understand how it had happened so quickly, but he didn't care all that was ringing in the back of his mind was a promise made long ago.  
“Of all the girls I've met in my lifetime I have to fall in love with the massive alien huntress” he said to himself as he dragged her through the jungle, but he knew that it was love pure and true and the sheer power of it made him realize that he’d never actually felt it like this before, all the times that he’d thought that he was in love had just been a hopeful wish or a shadow of what it really was, but this, this was real and the sheer power of it had turned him into a wild animal with only one goal, to protect her and keep her safe, it also kept him going long after he should have collapsed of exhaustion, the worst part was he knew there was no way that she’d ever return these feelings of his, but at the same time he didn't care, there was no way he was going to let the universe be robbed of such a beautiful creature, not on his watch.  
It was pretty much dark when Jack finally reached the foot of the cliff where Tik’s cave was located, now he knew there was no way for him to carry her up the side of the sheer cliff face, so given that he’d tied Tik to the stretcher to stop her from falling off he decided the only way to get her up there was to attach ropes to each corner and hoist her up the cliff but that was going to be easier said than done.  
Finding vines in this jungle was rather easy as the stuff was everywhere and it was super strong stuff like steel cable, which also made it rather a cunt to cut it but Jack focused on his goal of getting Tik to safety and it drove him on, he cut and twisted the vines until he’d managed to create about a hundred feet of the stuff. Next he climbed up to the cave and found and anchor point inside to use as a lever to hoist around, then the final part was securing and double securing the stretcher and Tik.  
Finally Jack was now stood at the entrance of the cave with the vine rope in his hands, he pulled all the slack out of the rope and began to haul, it took everything he had to even get her off the ground,   
“Fuck me!!! I’m never gonna be brave enough to tell you this to your face but you’re FUCKING HEAVY!!!” he yelled as he hauled at the rope, the friction was burning his skin constantly as he pulled, it burned it and due to a couple of slips he lost a fair bit of skin from both his hands and his wrists, but after half an hour of constant pull, rest, pull, rest, he managed to get the Yaujta huntress up onto the ledge of the cave entrance.  
Ignoring the pain and the fact that his hands were bleeding heavily Jack dragged Tik into the cave on the stretcher, then using the little plasma torch that Tik had left on the side Jack quickly lit all the torches and then pushed that huge piece of wood into the cave entrance sealing it completely.  
Untying her from the stretcher Jack moved Tik from the floor to her large bed, now came the part that was probably going to get his head stoved in when she woke up, but he didn't care as long as she did wake up, slowly he undid the valves to the side of her mask which now had a rather nice dent in it, both valves hissed and sprayed a gas as they were removed, then with a little force he pulled the mask away from her face, instantly he stopped as he looked at the face of the unconscious huntress, “Why are you so beautiful to me?” he said quietly touching the side of her face with his hand, to most of his species they would have seen her as a monster pure and simple, but to him he saw so much more in her, a deep tribal pride and an unshakable code of honor that he admired so deeply, her skin was warm and sort of rough but it felt wonderful to his touch and he hoped beyond hope that one day she may even let him touch her of her own choice, as he removed his hand didn't even notice the perfect hand print in his blood that he left behind on her face.  
Next up was the part that was probably going to get him a beating, slowly he raiser her arms and with a bit of fiddling to find and remove the clips he lifted her breast plate over her head to get a look at the wounds under it, fortunately for his blood pressure and for her modesty she was wearing a slim fitting leather top under it, it left little for the imagination but it at least preserved her modesty and her honor, it wasn't that Jack didn't want to see her naked but he didn't want it like this, if he was to receive that honor he wanted her to bestow it upon him herself through her choice.   
Straight away he saw a long slice going horizontal along her chest below her breasts, there was a fair amount of dried blood next to it and it still seeped through the wound which though it had sealed itself was still weeping a bit of blood, Jack wiped her blood away from it to get a better look, in the process he left a couple of smears of a mixture of his and her blood on her stomach, although he didn't even notice them it was these little smears and that hand print that would carry enough weight to change his life later on.  
Those bugs were really a fury when it came to slashing as it was only really now that he noticed just how many cuts Tik had all over her, he’d bandaged up the biggest ones but there were many littler ones all over her, he noticed some on her shapely thighs and investigate them more closely, right at this point he was actually hoping that she didn't wake up or it would be rather tricky to explain why he was looking up her skirt.  
Jack decided it would be wise to remove all of Tik’s weapons and gear and go through it to see if she had anything like a medical kit of her own, so he pulled all of her weapons off her and replaced them on their stand respectfully, finally he came across something he hadn't seen before, it was a large silver cylinder that was clipped to her hips at the rear, he turned it over in his hands trig to find a way of opening it, finally he noticed a concealed switch on the top and as he pressed it the cylinder opened with an audible hiss.   
The cylinder opened like a flower revealing loads of little tools and vials inside it, although he had no clue what he was looking at he knew that this had to be what he was looking for, there was a small oval shaped device at the top of the tools and he lifted it out, the second it was removed he heard a sharp click to his left, he turned to look and for a moment he was confused till he noticed that Tik’s wrist computer had popped open on its own, curiously he leaned in and looked at it, the display was covered in red symbols in what could only be the Yaujta language and he didn't understand any of it, but then she noticed a small oval shaped port on the left side of the computer,   
“Hmm I wonder?” he said looking at the small device in his hand, slowly he touched the device to the port on the computer and to his surprise it clipped into place with a click, instantly all the lettering on Tik’s computer changed to a blue color and it started making a whirring noise, suddenly a hologram burst out of the computer which nearly made Jack jump backwards off the massive bed.   
The hologram appeared to be a representation of Tik, there were loads of little red lines on it which seemed to correlated with her wounds, suddenly as he looked at the image the cylinder in his hand vibrated, looking down he saw two of the vials had lit up, so he set the cylinder down and removed the two vials, next a long tool with a small spoon like head lit up and so did a fan like object, so putting the vials down he pulled the tools out, the second her removed the fan object it opened out into a mixing dish,  
“Ahh I get it you want me to mix the two liquids in the vials” he said aloud, so placing the mixing dish down her picked up the vials and popped them open,   
he poured the contents into the dish and stirred it with the spoon tool, the concoction bubbled and fizzed for a second or two before calming down and turning a pale green, looking now at the hologram he saw the lines had been circled in green which he took to mean for him to apply the mix to these wounds, so taking the spoon he dipped it into the mix and began to spread it into Tik’s wounds.  
As he applied it the mixture fizzed and seemed to be cauterizing the cut shut, each left a rather nasty scar in its place, he had just enough of the mix to do every wound even the ones he’d bandaged shut, after he’d done them all he looked at the hologram again and he noticed that all the lines had gone green, next up a flashing red mark appeared on Tik’s head, he took this to represent the impact she’d taken when she’d gone down, again another vial lit up in the cylinder, so Jack took it out and looked at it, then a tool that looked like a syringe lit up, as he pulled it out he realized that’s exactly what it was, nothing else lit up so he figured that it wanted him to inject her with this stuff, so he pushed the syringe into the vial and drew the gold colored liquid into it before tapping it and pushing the plunger down to remove any air, then he noticed a piece on her arm flashing on the hologram, he figured that’s where it wanted him to inject the fluid, so taking a deep breath he pushed the needle into Tik’s massive arm and injected her.  
The device on her arm whirred and clicked a couple of times after Jack had administered the injection before finally the area on her head went green, Jack breathed out heavily suddenly realizing that he’d been holding his breath, the device now powered down and Tik’s computer released the oval object, Jack took it and placed it back in the cylinder which now closed itself up,   
“Looks like the operation was a success, now I guess I just wait” he said smiling at the unconscious Yaujta huntress, suddenly he became aware of his own pain, looking himself over he realized that Tik wasn't the only one who’d been pretty shredded by those things, but now he was totally out of bandages as he’d used them all on Tik, so doing the only thing he could he removed his shirt and tore it into strips with his knife.   
His medical kit had a few sachets of antibiotics and quick clot, so he took the antibiotics and filled his makeshift bandages with quick clot before applying them, he’d found the water that Tik kept around in a large pot by the fire pit, he’d used it to wash off most of the blood from his body and then with the wounds cleaned up he applied the bandages leaving his hands till last to maintain their use, finally once he was done he sat back down on the bed and drank some of the water, it was only when the liquid touched his lips did he realize that his thirst had been hidden by adrenaline, he knew better than to wolf it down despite every instinct telling him to, so slowly sipping it he rehydrated as best as he could given how much fluid he’d lost, then after the thirst everything else hit him as well, the sheer pain and the full out exhaustion all kicked in at once, he found himself crashing down on his back on the bed next to the large female Yaujta, with one last glance at her he smiled, “Of all the girls in the universe I had to fall for the difficult one” he said and with that finally passed out.


	10. Realisations

Tik eleth woke feeling like she’d been hit by a freight shuttle, every single part of her body either hurt or ached or even both, she tried to force her eyes open by every time she did her head started bursting with pain, so she just laid there trying to get her mind to focus as all her thoughts felt swimmy and fragmented, it was like her head was filled with liquid mush that moved every time she moved her head.  
But very slowly her senses started to align themselves and things started to click back into place, firstly her sense of smell came back on and she became aware that something close by smelt heavily of blood, then swiftly her hearing and sense of feeling came back and she instantly became aware of breathing rather close by, she also became aware that she appeared to be laid on something soft, then with a sharp pulse of pain her memory came flooding back and she remembered what was happening to her and Ack.  
Tik eleth’s eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright and she looked around in blind panic, her last memory was Ack standing over her protecting her and fighting the kiande amedha, so at first she was confused fully expecting to find herself in the cave where her and Ack had been fighting the kiande amedha, but much to her confusion she found herself in her cave home, she began to wonder if the entire event had been some sort of pauked up dream, then as the adrenaline rush subsided the pain hit her hard and she looked down at herself. Much to her surprise her armor was completely gone and she was just in her under garments, this confused her until she saw all the new wounds and scars on her body that had been patched up with her medical kit, but she didn't remember returning to the cave let alone patching herself up, then fear gripped her mind and she looked over the side of the bed to where Ack would sleep on the floor, the rugs were empty.

For the first time in her life Tik eleth felt fear, raw unadulterated fear suddenly gripped her in a bolt that shot her in the chest and she felt her blood actually run cold, her heart began to hammer in her chest as she began to imagine the fate that had befallen her ooman ally, she went to push herself off the bed but as she reached down to push off her hand landed on something warm and soft, slowly Tik eleth turned around in confusion and there sprawled out on his back on her bed was Ack.  
The first feeling to flood through her was one of sheer relief that the ooman had not fallen to the kiande amedha, the next thought to fill her was confusion as to why he was in her bed but this was swiftly replaced with concern when she saw that his body was covered in a multitude of makeshift bandages.   
Moving slowly Tik eleth turned around on the bed and ignoring the protests of her own body she leaned over the unconscious ooman to inspect him, he appeared to have removed his shirt to turn it into bandage material to treat his wounds, these were all now stuck to him with dry blood, his lower torso was like a patchwork of bandages covering a load of wounds undoubtedly caused by the razor sharp claws of the kiande amedha which she knew could cleave easily through some of the strongest metals, there were also a load of them on his arms and legs.   
She also noticed that his hands were both bandaged heavily and from what she could tell most of the skin was missing from his palms. This was the first time that Tik eleth had been able to see what Ack hid underneath his armor, she had to admit that he was rather easy on her eyes and also she’d noticed that what she could see of his torso was a patchwork of scars which indicated the many battles he’d fought and won, this indicated to her that she’d been right about his warrior status, without realizing what she was doing she reached over and began to run her hand over his exposed masculine chest, relishing the feeling of his soft warm skin which covered his hard toned muscles, it was only when a purr escaped her that she froze up, what the hell was she doing? He’s an ooman and she’s Yaujta, this could not be allowed to happen, she could not allow herself to have feelings for him, she would dishonor herself and her clan.   
But even though her mind screamed at her to stop, her body refused to listen and her hand did not move from his chest it was frozen in place directly over his beating heart, the soft thumping feeling under her hand awoke feelings in her, feelings that no matter how hard the reason part of her brain tried to beat them back would not listen and now flooded her mind.

At this point suddenly Tik noticed something odd, as her eyes roamed over the body of the unconscious ooman they were drawn to his hands, slowly and rather grudgingly she removed her hand from his chest and slowly picked up his right hand to inspect it, the first thing that struck her was how soft it was, it had an almost fragile quality to it. The crude bandage covered some rather nasty wounds in his palms, wounds that sort of looked like burns to her, but it wasn't that that caught her attention, it was the fact that it wasn't only his blood on his hands, there was Yaujta blood mixed with the blood on his hands.  
This little revelation really confused Tik eleth, why did he have Yaujta blood on his hands? Deciding that this warranted further investigation she decided to get up and see if she could piece together what had happened after she’d lost consciousness, so slowly and again rather grudgingly she placed Ack’s warm soft hand back down to his side, then slowly as the pain was fighting her all the way, she climbed off the bed and immediately nearly tripped on a rather large wooden frame on the floor, looking at it closely she noticed rather a lot of vine rope coiled on top of it, this confused her as she couldn't tell what it was for or even where it had come from and why was there so much rope on it? Tik looked over at her armor and weapons on the stands and she instantly spotted something, it all appeared to be covered in bloody hand prints, but not Yaujta blood, ooman blood.  
She headed over to it and inspected it and it appeared that all of her weapons and her armor had the prints on them, also her medical kit had a large bloody ooman print on it, as she lifted it up she caught sight of her reflection in the shiny metal and instantly noticed that she had something on the side of her face, holding the cylinder up to the light for a better look she realized to her utter shock that it was a hand-print in ooman blood, she had been marked with Ack’s blood!  
It reminded her of an old ritual that her grandmother had told her about once, where life mates would stake a permanent claim to the other by marking each other with their own blood, this would then show that this person was unavailable to others and was permanently claimed by another, the thought of Ack marking her in this way sent a shiver through her, but not a bad one.

Suddenly she began to realize what had happened but she couldn't believe it, quickly she opened the medical kit and found vials missing and the tools covered in ooman blood prints, then she quickly looked at the large frame again and found it to be coated in places with Yaujta blood, then she noticed the vine rope had rather a large amount of ooman blood on it and also pieces of what looked like skin!

Suddenly everything now made complete sense, it was totally unbelievable but it was the only explanation that fit, somehow Ack had beaten all the kiande amedha on his own when she was felled by them, which fit with her last memory which she had begun to believe was part of a vivid dream but now realized was reality, he’d stood over her shouting at the kiande amedha in pure rage that they wouldn't get her because…because she was his.  
The last words that Ack had said before she blacked out came flooding back into her mind and her heart started to hammer in her chest, he had pretty much screamed his love for her at the kiande amedha, then somehow he’d been able to defeat them before he’d made some sort of makeshift stretcher out of wood and vines, he’d then put her on it and dragged her through the jungle back to the cave, somehow he’d been strong enough to use the vine rope to winch her up to the cave had got her onto the bed and had managed to figure out how to use her medical kit to treat her wounds after removing her armor, before happy that she was ok had treated his own wounds in a makeshift way and finally collapsed on the bed next to her.  
Looking around she saw the bandages that were covered in her own blood, these were not Yaujta they were ooman, so that meant that Ack had used his own medical supplies on her rather than on himself choosing to fix her wounds rather than his own first.

The reality of what this ooman had done for her finally hit home in Tik eleth’s mind and it hit her like a plasma bolt to the chest, he’d fought off the most dangerous prey in the universe on his own to protect her, had dragged her dead weight for miles across the jungle on his own, he’d winched her up a cliff on his own, these feats alone should have been physically impossible for him but somehow he’d achieved them, then finally after getting into bed he had figured out her medical kit with no help and had treated her wounds before finally seeing to his own needs.  
Tik eleth turned to look at the unconscious ooman male on her bed, thoughts and feelings were firing through her head at an intense rate, her reason tried to stop them but just couldn't keep up, not once in her life had she encountered a being that had displayed such honor to themselves, not once in her life had she been treated with such respect and such tender care by another, all she’d wanted her entire life was to be acknowledged, to have someone to care for and someone who cared about her, but no one had even tried, this had planted a bitter seed in her heart, it had made her more determined than anything to show them all that size doesn't matter, that looks don’t matter, that what a person is is on the inside not the outside, that just because she wasn't tall, that just because she wasn't beautiful didn't mean that she wasn't worthy of love. Then comes this male, this beautiful selfless honorable ooman male and he had singlehandedly proven every point that she’d tried to make to her own people, but he’d proven it to her instead, she’d been looking at him in the wrong way this entire time, he’d managed to do what no Yaujta had managed to or had ever even had the guts to try to, he had claimed Tik eleth’s heart.

It was all so clear now, she loved him, she completely and utterly loved him, she couldn't believe it herself but it was true, if another had dared to tell her that she’d have fallen in love with an ooman, a prey species, she’d have removed their spine and used it as a belt for daring to suggest that she would commit such a dishonor, but now the feelings flooded her mind completely, all those years wanting for someone to love and for someone to love her and the male that had chosen her was an ooman and more to her surprise she too had chosen him.

Tik eleth walked over to the bed and slowly she lowered herself back onto the skins that made up the mattress, slowly as to not to disturb him she moved slowly up the bed till she was laid right next to him looking right at him, she studied his face now with unrestricted eyes as the voice of reason in her head was now the one being beaten back with the big stick, she looked at that strong jaw and his rugged exotic looks, he was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen in her life, she felt an overwhelming urge to touch him but at the same time did not want to hurt him and given the extent of his wounds she was hard pressed to find a part of him that wasn't bandaged save for his chest, but that would do just nicely and she placed her large hand down on his soft deliciously warm skin, she drank in the exquisite sensations of actually touching the one she loved tenderly like this, of their own will her mandibles clicked away happily and a purr rose in her throat, but this time she did not stop it, looking back from his chest to his face she made a silent vow to herself, that the debt she owed him would be repaid in full, she owed him her life so her life would be his payment, she vowed that while she lived no one would ever harm the one she loved, because once won the love of a female Yaujta never fades, the now very beaten voice of reason in her head squeaked a question about her clan and her honor, to which the answer was so simple to her now, to hell with all of them, her clan had never done for her a tenth of what this beautiful ooman had, as for her honor, how could a being that had so selflessly defended her and put her needs before his own even though it could have cost him his life ever sully her honor, in fact it would be her honor to reward him with the only thing that could equal the value of such a sacrifice, herself. 

Reaching up from his chest Tik eleth stroked the side of Ack’s face and enjoyed the feeling of his warm breath on her hand, she smiled down at him, she was planning on what she would do and say when he finally woke up, the first thing she would do would be to claim him as her own, he had done her the honor of claiming her back in the cave of the kiande amedha and she realized that even though they were spoken in anger she had never heard such beautiful words spoken, so she would repay this and claim him as her mate.  
Suddenly Ack turned over in his sleep and much to Tik eleth’s surprise and also sheer delight he wrapped his arms around her torso, she was amazed that he could even move in his wounded state, or that the pain that this must have caused him hadn't woken him straight up, but she found her breath now caught in her throat as she lay back down on her back, the feeling of this wonderful oomans embrace was incredible, it was like nothing she had ever experienced in her life, the delightful feeling of his skin against her own, the sheer warmth of him over whelmed her, these oomans were such a wonderfully intimate species, Yaujta never rarely embraced or touched in this manner outside of rutting each other, but then pretty much every male wouldn't be seen dead expressing their feeling of love for even their life mate if they’d been lucky enough to win a female's heart enough that she had dedicated herself to him, but these oomans did it so naturally, it seemed to be like breathing for them and she loved it, or at least it was for her Ack, slowly she wrapped her own arms around his wounded torso and pulled him gently closer, holding him as tightly as she dared against her, she couldn't wait for him to wake up so that she could declare her feelings for him and claim him as her own, then she could truly repay his love with her own.

Then much to her utter amazement a feeling of calm washed over her mind, she’d been fighting against these thoughts and feelings so hard that to just give into them like this felt amazing, she’d felt so resentful towards the males of her own kind and her own clan for rejecting her so completely despite her many victories for them and the ‘honor’ of her clan just because she was seen as a weakling because of her height, that to finally find someone one who saw her for who she truly was and gave her the respect that she so badly deserved was a wonderful feeling, it was such a nice thought to find a male that didn't just look her way when they could find no-one else for a quick rut, only then to shower her with insults when she rebuffed their self-absorbed claims to her body, she was seen by many of her peers as a prude for saving her honor for a male that she believed truly deserved it, but she would have never in a million life times have believed that the male worthy of this honor would be of a totally different species let alone one that was considered a stupid prey species by her kind, but she knew different, she knew the total worth of the male laid next to her, now she knew it was up to her to prove her worth to him, she would prove her love to him no matter what the cost.

It all became so clear to her now, for so long she had felt bitter that no male in her clan wanted her, that they were too scared of ruining their social status or their peers ridiculing them for associating with a ‘runt’ or ‘Dwarf’ or ‘Halfling’ to name but a few of the wonderful names her peers had given her, so instead of looks of admiration or at the very least recognition when she made a successful hunt they would instead ignore her and give the glory to the clan as a whole. Just once she’d wished someone, anyone would look at her and see her for who she truly was, but they never had, not until now, it turned out that she’d been looking in the wrong place the entire time, so to hell with all of them, they could take their honor and their glory and shove it up their pompous bigoted collective arse, she had what she needed right her in her arms and she was never going to let go, never. 

 

Suddenly a feeling of extreme tiredness overcame Tik eleth, she fully laid down on her back and as she did she instantly felt Ack snuggle even closer into her side, his arms were encircling her waist and now her rested his head on her shoulder and she felt the delicious feeling of his warm breath on her neck, she placed her left arm around him and placed her hand on his arm and held it in place, her right hand she placed on the back of his own which was now right in the middle of her stomach, to her delight his fingers spread and entwined with her own in a sort of knot, she marveled at the contrasts of their skins together like this, his pink while flesh standing in near perfect contrast to her dark brown and green skin, his so soft and smooth to hers so rough and firm, right now she didn't want him to move, this was the first time she’d ever been held by a male in her life and because it was Ack she didn't want it to end, but in a rush her exhaustion caught up with her again and she felt sleep pulling her in, slowly she placed her head against his and her rapidly failing eyes studied and drank in every detail of his face in close up, as she was in the arms of the one she loved she let sleep claim her and went willingly to the wonderful dreams that she hoped awaited her.


	11. Stronger Together

The first thing Jack became aware of was a strange thumping noise, it was rather rhythmic and steady. It made a thump thump noise constantly and normally something like that would have annoyed him but for some reason he couldn't explain this seemed very familiar and also rather soothing. The second thing he became aware of was the sheer amount of pain in every part of his body, it felt like his entire body had been cut open filled with broken glass sewn back up and shaken rather vigorously.

Slowly he forced his mind to come back out of the void that it had been drawn into, as his senses came back to him he realized that the familiar thumping noise had gotten louder and also a fair bit faster, he also became aware of something rather warm and soft under his head, he went to move his hand to try and work out what it was but realized as that there was something warm and soft under his hand too, he gently squeezed and was surprised by how firm the soft thing actually was, as his confused brain tried to make sense of this his pillow moved and made a growly purring noise.

Jack's eyes snapped open and they focused he was instantly greeted with a close up of Tik's face and she was looking right at him with what could only be described as the biggest grin one of her kind was capable of.  
"Finally you wake up Ack I begin to worry" she said in a surprisingly soft voice for her, suddenly Jack realized why his pillow had a thumping noise, it was Tik's heart beating in her chest as his head was on her shoulder and at that point he also realized what that soft thing in his hand was, he'd just copped a feel of this massive and rather deadly female Yaujta's right breast.  
"Oh shit!! I'm so so sorry Tik I didn't mean to I would never....." he started trying to say as he rapidly tried to sit up and pull away, but as he did the large huntress caught his hand and placed it right back where it came from and held there, in the process pulled him right back down on to her shoulder, he looked up at her with a confused expression written on his face, well the half that could be seen behind her bust, she wasn't looking at him but at the ceiling of the cave, from what he could see of her face she seemed to be wrestling with something in her mind, he could see her mandibles twitching,   
"Don't move away Ack, please, this feels very nice" she said in a very soft voice while squeezing his hand in hers gently, which considering the Tik he was used to, seemed completely out of character for her and it almost worried him, then she took a deep breath and look straight at him meeting his ice blue eyes,   
"Ack I have a question and I need an answer" she said,   
"Ok" he said slowly wondering where this was going,   
"Why did you save me Ack?" She asked, for a moment Jack started to think up a rather long winded answer explaining about how they were a team and how they were stronger together and how it was a tactical decision, but when he saw her bright eyes desperately searching his he knew the words he had to say, he sighed heavily,   
"Because, you're the most beautiful creature I have ever seen, you're an amazing, strong, proud and powerful woman that takes no shit from anyone or anything, and I'm completely in love with you Tik eleth proud huntress of the Shadow Claw clan and I couldn't bear to lose you" he said quietly, before he could even blink Tik exploded in a flurry of movement and he braced himself for the explosion of anger, but it never came, instead Tik flipped over on her side and Jack found himself pulled into an extremely tight embrace with his face right up to hers and their foreheads pressed together, he found himself looking right into her bright purple eyes, that’s when he saw it, his own feelings for her were being reflected straight back at him, then she released him from the embrace and got up out of the bed and rose to her full height, Jack couldn't help but admire her gorgeous feminine curves and her powerful body, she turned to face him and he instantly saw a fire in her eyes like he'd never seen before, she truly was breath-taking,   
"Ack is the bravest, strongest, most honorable male I have ever met, you respect my ways despite the fact that they are not your own and you show respect as any true Yaujta male should, I know we are of different species and are from different worlds, and it may disgrace myself and my clan, but I do not pauking care anymore! I am sick and tired of following the rules of those who do not care about me, who do not see me for who I am, who cannot or will not see my true worth and only care about what honor and glory I can bring to their names, but in only a few short cycles you have seen me for who I truly am, as I see you for who you truly are, I love you Ack with all of my heart!" She said this time not in a soft voice but in a loud very proud one as the depth of her feelings for him came rushing out,   
Jack was stunned but before he could open his mouth to say anything she spoke again,   
"Ack what is your clan name?" She asked, he figured she meant family name,   
"It's Mason, Jack Mason" he said proudly looking at her,

"Ack of the proud clan Mason, I Tik eleth proud full blooded huntress of the Shadow Claw clan claim you to be my life mate, we will stand shoulder to shoulder and fight back the universe if we have to, what say you?" She said, he realized this must be a ritual for her people, the beautiful woman had done something he'd never expected anyone to ever do for him, she had pledged herself completely to him, he decided it was now or never, he stood up from the bed ignoring his immense pain and rose to his full height, as he did he saw Tik's eye roaming him just as his had done her only moments ago, suddenly he saw a figure standing behind Tik, it was a shadow but there was no mistaking that smile anywhere, it was Sandy.  
Jack stared in utter disbelief at what could only be described as a ghost staring behind the large huntress, then before the shadow faded she smiled and gestured to Tik with a blatant ‘Go ahead’ move before with a final smile faded back into the darkness.

This was it, the final part of his mind that had been giving him reservations had been lifted, he felt like a weight had lifted from his shoulder and suddenly he felt as light as a feather and for the first time in a long time his heart and his head were as clear as the blue sky, the only other woman that he’d ever loved in his life had just given them her blessing from beyond the grave, if this wasn't meant to be then he didn't know what was, so drawing himself up and puffing his chest out proudly filling his lungs with breath as he did, he looked straight into Tik’s almost pleading eyes,  
"I Jack of the proud clan Mason recognize the claim of Tik eleth proud, strong and beautiful huntress of the Shadow Claw clan and accept it, Tik eleth I hereby claim you to be my life mate, lets show the universe that you can't beat true love" he said in his proudest voice trying not to sound cheesy as hell, it worked Tik flew straight at him and threw her arms around him in a tight embrace and he ignored the pain in his body to return it, he instantly felt the warm slightly rough skin of Tik's strong back as he stroked it and much to his delight he felt Tik purring and clicking away as she bent down to nuzzle the side of his face,   
"I love you so much Tik" he murmured in her ear, 

"As I love you Ack" she murmured right back, suddenly Jack had an idea, one of the only items that been in his pouches that was not military and infact he was surprised that they’d even bothered to give it back to him was his MP3 player, quickly he moved away from a rather confused Tik and began to search through his gear till he found it and held it aloft triumphantly, the confusion on Tik’s face was obvious for all to see as he looked at her smiling, “What is that Ack?” she asked looking at the device in his hand then back to his face, he removed the headphones from it and grinned happily as it powered up, there was a small but powerful speaker on the rear of it and he placed it inside one of her trophy skulls which he figured would enhance the sound by echoing it, “Well where I’m from its traditional that at their wedding the bride and groom dance together on their wedding day and as this is as close as either of us is going to get to a true wedding….” He said as he selected a song from the list, suddenly ‘Slow Dancing Swayin To The Music’ by Johnny Rivers began to play from the speaker and the sound was enhanced by the skull to the point where one could actually swear that the man himself was there singing for them personally, “Would you honor me by dancing with me?” he said turning and holding out his hand to the confused huntress. 

Tik eleth was rather confused as she didn't even know what dancing was but the music coming from her trophy skull was rather hypnotic and Ack had shown her honor by upholding her traditions, so it was only right that she honor his, she nodded and Ack stepped forwards and took her hand, he placed her other on his shoulder before placing his on her hips, “Just follow my lead and let the music take you” he said quietly as he looked up at her, she nodded and much to her amazement they began to move in slow circles around the cave as she found herself being almost entranced by the soft slow music. At first she was clumsy treading on Ack’s feet more than once but to her amazement he never showed any pain despite her weight would obviously be causing him pain and he never lost his broad smile, but pretty soon her honed huntress reflexes took hold and she was able to move her body in time with Ack and she pulled him close against herself, a sudden wave of pure joy crashed inside her and she actually felt tears begin to well up in her eyes despite her best attempt to try and suppress them.

After the song was finished they continued to dance for a little while but then Jack couldn't fight the pain anymore and he hissed and winced which caused Tik to release him and to look at his wounded body, she instantly saw that their embrace and dance had reopened a couple of Jack's wounds,   
"Come my love lay down let me treat those for you" she said guiding him to the bed, Jack went without resistance all the while smiling at the fact that she'd called him 'my love' right now he was the happiest man alive.

Tik eleth was so happy it felt like she could burst, never before in her life had she felt such profound joy as she felt right at this moment, the male she had claimed had also claimed her, he had declared his love for her in a strong and proud voice and had spoken the true feelings of his heart to her and they had perfectly matched her own. As she sat on the bed patching up Ack's wounds she gazed at his ooman body and her heart ached at the wounds he had suffered on her behalf, but at the same time she couldn't help herself but to allow herself to softly caress his soft skin and firm muscles every so often as she stitched his wounds closed, she also applied one of the fluids from her medical kit it the wounds which she knew stung like holy hell but sped up healing, right now her heart wasn't the only part of her that was aching, touching his beautifully soft warm skin like this was having a rather profound effect on another part of her, in fact it was taking all her inner strength to not just pounce on her beautiful male and truly claim him as her mate, as she removed a bandage from his abdomen now she gently ran the palm of her hand over his broad chest feeling the beating of his heart below, a soft purr escaped her before she could stop it, instinctively she looked up at Ack's face and saw him looking right at her, then he did something completely wondrous and totally confirmed in her heart that she had made the right choice, he leaned into her and gently nuzzled the sides of her face causing her to purr again, she gently caressed the side of his face and jaw with her mandibles,  
"I want to try something so please don't freak out ok" he said softly into her ear, she looked at him and nodded, "Open your mandibles wide for me" he said, she was kind of confused by his request but did as she was asked, she opened her mandibles wide exposing her inner mouth to him, she had rather small but rather sharp looking spiky teeth in her inner lipless mouth, then before she could do or say anything Ack leaned in and pressed his face between her mandible and pressed those wondrous fleshy things of his to her mouth.

Tik eleth was completely stunned by this as she felt Ack's mouth press to hers, her first instinct was to pull away but she ignored it and was instantly glad she did, as the next thing he did was retract those delightful fleshy things of his to expose his teeth which she felt click against her own, then almost immediately she felt his mouth open and his tongue pop out and begin tasting her teeth! Tik eleth didn't know what was happening or what to do but suddenly her body reacted on its own, before she told it to her inner mouth opened and Ack's thick warm tongue instantly darted straight into her mouth and began playing and dancing with her own! The sheer level of intimacy of this act nearly melted Tik eleth’s mind, she could actually taste the saliva of the man she loved in her mouth, but rather than feel revolted she felt totally invigorated, she could actually taste and feel his tongue as it played with her own, she began to wrestle with his tongue for dominance as she pressed herself into him feeling his hands now gripping her tightly and running over the muscles of her back and her hips, this feeling made her shiver with pleasure. Somehow he managed to coax her tongue out of her mouth and into his and a pulse of sheer pleasure shot through her as he allowed her to feel those warrior’s teeth of his that she loved so much with her tongue!   
Instantly she began to taste all around inside his mouth revelling in the sheer pleasure of sharing in such a delightfully intimate act with the man she loved.

Finally, they were forced to break for air and they grudgingly parted and Tik closed her mandibles, but she continued to pant after she did, it seemed that the kiss had rather a profound effect on her, Jack smiled at the beautiful huntress and ran his hand lovingly over the side of her face, she leaned into his touch and purred softly,   
"Did you enjoy your first ooman style kiss my love?" He asked in a soft voice,   
"Oomans have such wonderful ways to show their love" she said softly,  
he smiled broadly showing her his teeth and instantly making her want to taste them again,   
"And given that you've won the love of this ooman I will share them all with you" he said, suddenly the air was filled with an amazingly spicy smell that clouded Jack's head with wonderful feelings and such powerful urges, his body no matter how broken responded instantly to it and he fell his blood rushing to his loins and his manhood begin to swell, he knew right at that second that the delicious scent was coming from Tik, it seemed that the kiss had a much more profound effect on her than he'd anticipated.  
Tik looked into his eyes and he instantly saw the swirling feelings of love and desire pouring from them, she ran her hand over his chest gently dragging her claws over his skin leaving light red lines on it,   
"I need you Ack, I want my male so badly that it hurts, I want to make you my mate tonight" she said in a voice filled with hunger, he gently stroked the side of her face again,   
"Then don't fight it, take me my love I am yours" he said in an equally hunger filled voice.

Tik eleth was literally about to launch herself at her beautiful male when her eye locked onto one of the wounds she'd just stitched shut and she froze up,   
"But your wounds, they are not healed" she said suddenly,   
"Don't worry about me, I'm tougher than I look and for your happiness any pain is worth it" he said, Tik eleth looked deeply into the eyes of the man she loved and saw that he loved her so deeply that he would truly endure pain if he thought that he could make her happy and her heart melted,  
"I cannot, if I injured you further after all that you have done for me it would dishonor me and I could not live with the shame of knowing that I hurt the one I love more than life itself" she declared.

Jack actually smiled at this, because it showed how deeply she cared for him, he'd known that she was ready to pounce on him but for her to stop herself like that showed the depth of her feelings, being showed honor and love like that deserved a reward.   
"Ok then Tik how about this then, we save ourselves for a night when we are back to our full strength and we can enjoy one another completely and unreservedly without fear of harming the other" he said, she nodded completely agreeing with that, she wanted Ack badly but she did not want to harm the male she loved,  
"Ok but what about this, how about you let me show you another of those human ways of showing how much I love and care for you?" He said, she looked at him curiously with her head cocked to one side, then she nodded and he smiled broadly.

Gently Jack guided Tik to lay down on her back, then slowly he began to remove her clothing, she allowed him to do so but she was feeling nervous as he was the first male who would ever see her naked.   
As soon as he'd removed everything Jack sat back and admired Tik in all her glory, her breasts were just over a C cup but were firm and perky with large dark nipples in the center of both, her toned stomach was a slightly lighter color than the rest of her skin and it kinda reminded him of the light skin that an alligator had on its stomach or that of a snake, this led down into deliciously curvy feminine hips that led into slender but very powerful legs that just seemed to go on forever, nestled between them just partially hidden from his view was the puffy outer lips of her completely bald womanhood, in fact Tik didn't seem to have any body hair what so ever, "By the gods you're even more beautiful than I ever even dared to imagine" he said, Tik purred happily at the compliment, then Jack laid himself down next to her and leaned over getting face to face with her, instantly she opened her mandibles wide for him to kiss her again and he willingly buried his tongue into her eagerly waiting inner mouth again relishing the taste of her as her tongue began to wrestle his.

At the same time Jack began to run his left hand over Tik's stomach marveling at how much smoother the skin was than that of the rest of her body, slowly he brought it up till he cupped her left breast in his hand, then slowly he began to massage the firm rough flesh till he felt something poke him in the center of his palm. Taking her nipple between his thumb and forefinger he gently tweaked it and rolled it between his thumb and finger, this elicited a small growl from Tik and she puffed out her chest which pushed her breast into his hand eagerly, then slowly he broke the kiss and dipping his head under her mandibles he kissed all along the large mandibles till he reached her neck, before moving his kisses down over her broad strong shoulder and onto her chest. He trailed soft kisses over her breast till her reached the other nipple which he saw was as hard as the one he currently playing with, swiftly he coiled his tongue around it and pulled the alien huntress's nipple into his eager mouth and began to suck on it while nibbling it gently with his teeth.  
Tik eleth let out a surprised and rather high pitched squeak which was swiftly followed by a hiss of pleasure as she felt the amazing sensation of Ack's sucking on her pup teats, she'd never known that they could be used as instruments of pleasure as well, it seemed this wonderful ooman knew more about her body than she herself did, in fact her brain was so pleasure addled that she hadn't even noticed his other hand had left her other teat and was now slowly making its way south along her toned stomach.

Jack's hand slowly trailed its way over Tik's belly and onto her hips, he traced the lines of her wonderfully slender hips before running it over the outside of her firm rough skinned left thigh, he marveled at the incredible power that he could feel in the muscle of her leg, before moving it over and tickling his way up the much smoother skin inside which had the desired effect of causing her to open her legs wider for him, then before he knew it his hand made contact with something beautifully soft, burning hot and deliciously wet.

Tik left out another hiss and squeak of raw pleasure as she felt Jack's fingers begin to trace around the outside of her most intimate treasure, she ached for his touch and she instantly began to thrust her hips up into his hand to make him touch her there, then to her sheer delight she felt one of his fingers slide between her outer lips and trace its way up her entire slit till it found something hard at the top that as soon as he touched it sent a star burst of pleasure through her entire body, a roar of pleasure escaped her causing Tik to flare her mandibles and grip the skins of her bed between her fingers, so intense was the pleasure that she failed to notice at Ack was no longer sucking her teat anymore and was kissing his way down her body.

As he reached her long powerful legs Jack couldn't resist running his tongue over the sensitive flesh up the inside of Tik's thighs, this caused her to part her legs wide for him, she drew her knees up and planted her massive feet either side of his body. He trailed his tongue upwards until his nose bumped against the very spot he was seeking and with no delay Jack looked up and was presented with a sight he was sure that no human before him had ever had the honor of viewing. Tik’s womanhood was swollen due to the sheer amount of blood that her body had sent its way, her outer lips were rather a dark green but from where he was he could see partially inside her and he could see the much lighter pale green flesh shimmering in the low light, her love juices were pumping out of her and had soaked the entire thing which made her skin glisten and shine, “Beautiful” he breathed, slowly he parted Tik's puffy blood swollen lower lips and got his first proper look at her most hidden trophy, her inner walls gleamed at him and twitched invitingly as he looked into her. The amazing spicy smell was so powerful here that every breath filled his lungs with her amazing pheromones that clouded his head fully with feelings of desire for the woman he loved, as his fingers played with her outer lips he could see the clear sticky looking liquid pouring out of her and he couldn't wait any longer he had to taste her, so with that he plunged his tongue straight into the alien huntress's womanhood.

Tik eleth let out a roar of sheer ecstasy as she felt Ack's tongue plunge into her depths and begin to taste around inside her, she could feel him tasting the inner walls of her mating canal, she felt his tongue exploring every ridge and bump of the burning hot exquisitely sensitive flesh, she could also feel him using his nose to rub that hard thing at the top that kept sending bright flashes into her vision and star-bursts of pleasure into her head, her hands seized his head to hold it in place and she ran her fingers through his soft hair as he continued to lick her womanhood, she wouldn't have never imagined in a million life times that such sheer raw pleasure could exist in this universe and here comes this male, this delightful, wonderful ooman male was showing her what the true depths of love really were, suddenly words were escaping her mouth that she couldn't even remember saying, "Oooooooh Ack!! Please I beg you! Don't stop, please don't stop, oooooooh!!!" begging him not to take this delightful pleasure away, she was a proud strong Yaujta huntress and she had never begged for anything her entire life, she would have sooner died in blinding agony first, but here she was begging this ooman male and she couldn't have been happier, for she loved this ooman with everything she was as a woman and she would happily submit to this male in one of her heartbeats because she knew he would to her in one of his.

Suddenly a strange pressure began to build at an alarming rate in her stomach,  
"Somethings happening Ack! Somethings coming!" She said her voice half addled with pleasure the other with growing concern, he lifted his head for a second,   
"Just relax my love, its ok just let it come and enjoy it, it’s my gift of love and it’s all for you" he said sounding breathless before instantly plunging his tongue back into her.

Jack adored the way Tik tasted, her juices were hot and spicy on his tongue and he couldn't help but drink all that leaked into his mouth, her love canal felt like a hot silk glove was trying to massage his tongue as he tasted her insides, he ran it all over every ridge and fold that he could reach inside her, he also withdrew it from time to time to run it from bottom to top teasing her inner and outer lips, he also continued to rub her swollen clit with his nose as well as gently nibbling it and sucking it in the times that his tongue was out of her, he was trying to cause the woman he adored as much pleasure as possible. Then suddenly he felt it just before it happened, he’d just found a rather sensitive spot on the upper walls towards her belly and instantly Tik's hips began to thrust faster and faster into his face causing her womanhood to hit his face with a wet sounding slap every time, she wrapped her legs loosely around his back and with and almighty roar of sheer ecstasy her tunnel clamped down on his tongue and began to ripple trying to milk it and a flood of her spicy juices flooded into his mouth causing him to swallow greedily as he drank it down, her fingers gripped his hair roughly holding his head in place and Tik's whole body shook violently as she rode the shear waves of pleasure of her very first orgasm.

After it passed Tik sagged limply on the bed and Jack kissed his way up the body of the woman he loved before settling his head on her big shoulder, she instantly wrapped her arms around him and pulled him completely on top of her holding him to her,   
"Did you enjoy that my love?" He whispered softly into her ear. 

Tik eleth couldn't speak yet as her brain was still much, all she knew was that she wanted to be held by the male she loved and for him to not let go, she had no clue what he'd just done to her but it had felt like a bomb of raw pleasure had gone off in her body and now for some reason she felt vulnerable, in fact this was a totally new feeling to her as she had never felt vulnerable in her life before now, then somehow he turned her so that she was facing away from him and this confused her, that was until she felt him press himself completely against her back and slide his arms around her, their bodies fit neatly together like they were made for one another, the second she felt his arms tighten around her she instantly felt warm, safe and loved and also happier than she'd ever been, quickly she found both of his hands with her own and interlocked her fingers with his and held them in place, if this was her time to die she would have died a very happy woman here in the arms of the male she adored.  
Finally, she was able to look at him over her shoulder as he leaned over to look at her and she smiled her mandibles at him, "That was the most incredible thing I have ever felt in my life and it was only made possible by you my love" she said quietly, he released on of his hands from hers and stroked the side of her face gently before trailing it back down her body for it to be entwined with her own again, 

"I'm so glad you enjoyed, because I love making you happy Tik, your pleasure is my pleasure" he said with such tenderness in his voice that Tik eleth actually felt her heart flutter, she knew right at that moment that no-one would take her male from her and she would kill the universe just to make him smile, 

"I love you Ack and I promise you that when you are healed I will show you the same love that you have shown me" she said with a smile, 

"I'll hold you to that you know" he said playfully, she smiled again knowing that he was only playing with her and not actually questioning her honor, 

"A huntress never breaks her word" she said and with that she gripped his hands tightly and held them against her stomach, she could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck and it lulled her senses, it was then that sleep stepped in and claimed them both pulling the huntress and her spooned ooman mate into their blissful dreams.


	12. Love's Power

As Tik eleth slowly woke up she felt the delightful feeling of Ack's warm breath on her neck, slowly opening her eyes she looked at the sleeping face of the ooman she loved, he was laid fully on top of her naked body and she ran her fingers over the firm muscles of his back, she realized she adored the feeling of his skin against hers, the smoothness of him delighted her continually as she traced her fingers all over his back and shoulders, she also realized that despite their obvious size difference she loved the feeling of his weight baring down on her like this, it made her feel wonderfully feminine, not a feeling she was used to at all, but one she was rapidly growing to adore.

Slowly she ran her fingers over the soft warm skin of his jaw, she could feel rough short hair all over his face, this intrigued her as she was sure it wasn't there the day before, maybe it had something to do with that knife she saw him running over his face the other morning, she had been meaning to ask him about that, oomans sure were a strange race with even stranger customs but a delightful one. She still couldn't believe that she'd fallen in love with one rather than one of her own kind, but as she looked at the sleeping face of her beautiful male her heart swelled, there wasn't a thing she wouldn't do for him, she lowered her head and pressed her face to the side of his and just watched him sleep.

Jack woke with a bit of a start as in his dreams he was back in the cave fighting the bugs again only this time it wasn't going so well for him or for Tik, in a blind panic he looked around himself and the first thing her became aware of was bright purple eyes very close to his own and as he focused he saw Tik looking right into his eyes, he also realized that he was laid completely on top of the beautiful naked huntress, he felt her gently squeeze his torso in a hug and he returned it relishing the feel of her wonderful warm rough skin against his own.

"Ack looks troubled" Tik said softly in his ear with obvious concern in her voice,  
he smiled at her softly as his whole body relaxed and looked into her hypnotizing purple eyes as the fear of the dream instantly faded away,   
"Just a bad dream my love" he said gently stroking the side of her face,   
she leaned into his touch closing her eyes as she did, a small purr escaped her as she enjoyed the feel of his touch, “What dream makes my male fearful?” she asked softly,

“One where I lost you” he replied his voice almost in a whisper, as she half opened her eyes she looked at him,   
“You will never lose me” she said, then she opened her mandibles wide exposing her inner mouth for him in the hope that he would kiss her, he instantly leaned into her and pressed his lips to her inner mouth and felt her close her mandibles a bit so that they held his face in place and she put a hand on the back of his head to pull him deeper into the kiss.   
She was really beginning to crave the intimacy of the wonderful act that oomans called kissing, not to mention the amazing feeling of being allowed to explore his mouth with her tongue as well as the feel of his in hers, she had never had such freedom in her life and she relished every second of him, then there was the sublime taste of him, all of this swirled together to form the supremely wonderful act oomans called kissing and to think that if she hadn't fallen in love with him she'd have never experienced this pure joy, not to mention what he'd done for her last night, because even if it was physically possible, there was no way in a million cycles that a male Yaujta would have ever done anything like that for a female, they'd have seen it as demeaning to their masculinity whereas Ack simply seemed to relish the fact that he'd made the female he loved experience a form of mind melting pleasure that she'd never even be able to put into words.   
Even the slightest thought of the feelings lit a fire in Tik eleth's loins, but this time it got her mind thinking, she actually wondered if there would be a way for her to give Ack the same type of pleasure that he had given her? And at the same time to gain a taste of Ack's masculinity in the same way that he had gained a taste of her femininity, the simplest thought of this added a fuel to that burning fire and she found herself wishing that he would hurry up and heal up so that she could find out.

Eventually they broke the kiss in order to breathe, as Tik closed her mandibles Jack smiled at her, "Well good morning to you too, that’s got to be one of the best ways to start the day" he said, she smiled back at him and clicked her mandibles happily,   
"Ooman kissing is very pleasurable" she said in a matter of fact voice that made Jack laugh,  
she looked at him curiously with her brow raised,   
"Did I say something humorous Ack?" She asked almost sounding offended,  
he smiled at her but at the same time his mind was racing, he really didn't want to piss off the woman he loved especially as that woman could easily tear him limb from limb, not that she would or at least he really hoped not, though he got the feeling courting a Yaujta huntress was going to be arduous at times, he really wasn't looking forwards to their first couple’s argument as he was probably going to need some pretty big guns to deal with that, or possibly a nuke.  
"Sorry I'm not laughing at you, I've just never thought of it as ooman kissing before and I'm just so happy that you enjoy it, as when I first decided that I wanted to try it with you I was just so nervous that you were going to react negatively or be totally revolted by it, it just makes me so happy that you actively seek to do it with me" he said smiling at her,  
this instantly calmed Tik down and she returned to smiling,   
"It is a very beautiful act, I wish to kiss with Ack as much as I can" she said again in her matter of fact voice, he stroked the side of her face  
"Well then my love you may kiss me as much as you like as I will never say no to the woman I love" he said gently his voice full of his intense love for her, Tik purred softly at his words as they simply served to confirm and reinforce what she already knew about this wonderful ooman,   
"As I would never say no to you my love" she said, rather than say anything Jack leaned in towards her face and she opened her mandibles and instantly melted into his kiss.

After they grudgingly tore themselves away from each other and got up, as Tik eleth got herself dressed her finely tuned hunter’s senses alerted her and she could actually feel Ack's eyes roaming over her naked body, it was a sensation that she found herself enjoying as he was the one and only male that she would ever allow to see her like this, she picked her clothes up and turned to face him with a sly smile on her mandibles,  
"Do you like what you see Ack?" She asked in a seductive purring voice,   
"No" he replied in a matter of fact voice which caused her heart to freeze in her chest and a look of total shock to appear on her face, he walked right up to her and looked her right in the eyes,   
"I love who I see" he said slipping his arms around her waist enjoying the sensation of her rough skin, her heart instantly did a backflip in her chest and she hugged him tightly against her naked body as a feeling of sheer relief washed over her, for the briefest of moments his words had actually scared her, she leaned down and pressed her forehead crest to his forehead   
"As I love you Ack" she said.

Before they were fully roused Tik eleth decided to make a few entries in her journal, she pulled it out from its hiding place, much to her surprise as she began to write she looked up to find that Ack was pottering around with her cooking equipment, she watched him with a look of confusion, surely she couldn't have stumbled across that most rare thing in the universe, a male who could actually cook.  
Much to her utter surprise that’s exactly what he did, while she watched in stunned silence Ack prepared the last of their meat and got the fire going, before spicing the meat and filling her pot, then as if he was aware of her watching he turned and looked over his shoulder at her, she could actually see his smile in his eyes as they actually seemed to sparkle, it appeared she really did have much to learn about oomans but she got the feeling she was going to enjoy this hunt for knowledge. 

The meal was more than just good, it was amazing even better than Tik eleth herself could have done and she’d been cooking since she was a pup, “Enjoying it?” Ack suddenly asked, all she could do was nod in a stunned silence, he retracted his fleshy lips and smiled his warrior’s teeth at her and she felt her heart do a back flip in her chest, “Been cocking since I was about eight, always had to do it for my brothers and sisters” he said,  
“Ack has siblings?” she asked, he nodded,  
“Yeah two brothers and three sisters and I’m the eldest” he said,  
“What about your patriarch and matriarch?” she asked, suddenly his face fell into a darkness and she suddenly found herself worried she’d angered him, then his eyes looked up and she saw a flood of pain in them, “Dead, killed by terrorists who wanted to prove a point and spread fear” he said, she was confused by this word,

“Terrorist?” she asked pausing her fork before her mandibles, he nodded,  
“Scum, the bad bloods of Earth, they kill for no reason, or at least no reason that makes any sense, they target the innocent and non-combatants” he said, the words suddenly flared Tik eleth’s anger, “They have no honor!” she spat, he nodded,  
“They wouldn't know honor if it bit them in the arse, hence why I did what I did before being brought here, but after it happened I was all my family had and since they left us a sizable estate in trust to me, I raised my brothers and sisters myself with a little help from a drunk good for nothing uncle who despite the fact he was worthless was useful for keeping the authorities off us in exchange for booze money every now and then” he said, Tik eleth was extremely impressed by this revelation of her mate’s skills with pups despite having only been one himself but also with his devotion to family, it just deepened his honor in her eyes, he had become his clan’s patriarch at a very young age but he had still managed to not only keep them in line but to raise them by his self without a matriarch to aid him.

After their meal Ack cleared up despite her protests and she quickly grabbed her diary and made three entries in relation to her beloved mate, she realized that if any other Yaujta saw this book she’d be disgraced but she didn't care, in fact she kinda hoped that someday maybe other Yaujta would read her words and know the love she has for this ooman, maybe it would liberate some other females to do as she did and to realize that they didn't have to just settle for a male just because he’d chosen her and just because they were the same species, maybe it would push others to look outside of their own and see that there is such beauty in the most unexpected places.

After Tik was dressed in both her clothes and her armor Jack went to retrieve his armor from the stand, "So what’s the plan for today?" He asked, Tik had just placed her hunting mask on and she whirled towards him so fast her dreadlocks actually whipped around, she placed a large hand on his shoulder stopping him in place,   
"Plan is I hunt, Ack rest" she said in a firm voice,   
"But I can......" Jack started but Tik silenced him with an angry clicking of her mandibles,  
"Ack rest I hunt, Ack must heal and regain strength, I want my male strong again" she said in a very firm voice, somehow Jack got the feeling that trying to argue with the huntress would be rather unwise, also something told him that he may very well need his strength later on,   
"Very well I rest you hunt" he said, she nodded standing proudly, happy that she had won the point, but she sensed that he really didn't want to leave her side, she stepped forward and stroked the side of his face tenderly,   
"Worry not my Ack I will return to you unharmed" she said softly,  
"Make sure you do or I'm going to have to kill everything on this planet to make sure I find the thing stupid enough to dare harm my female" he said with enough passion in his voice that it made Tik growl softly under mask, his words echoed exactly how she felt for him, this ooman truly understood the Yaujta heart and that fire was lit again, quickly she turned and headed for the cave exit before she tore her clothes back off and pounced on him.

As he watched her leave Jack wished he was going with her, it wasn't that he was worried about her in fact he was more worried about the thing stupid enough to fuck with her, he just didn't want to be separated from her and he really didn't like feeling useless, but at the same time he knew that she was right he needed to rest and heal up and besides he was on a promise to that beautiful huntress and it was one he intended to keep.  
For the rest of the day Jack found ways to keep himself busy as he was not very good at sitting around doing nothing, so he stripped his weapons and cleaned them, slowly, then he took another ammo count, slowly, then he checked his armor for damage and pouches and did an inventory, slowly and he still ended up sitting on the bed twiddling his thumbs and thinking of Tik, he couldn't help but wonder how she was doing.

Right at the same time Tik eleth was sat in a tree watching a whole group of shimmer lizards cautiously drinking from a watering hole, as she watched she found her thoughts wandering to her male back at the cave, she found herself missing his company rather badly, this was the first time since they'd met that they'd been apart and suddenly she felt like a piece of herself was missing, she found herself wondering if this what it was to be in love with someone, that when you were separated from them it felt like there was a void within yourself that only they could fill, or perhaps this is what they meant when they talked about them being half of your heart, because right now she felt like half of her heart was indeed missing, so quick as she could she finished off a few of the shimmer lizards with her wrist blades making the kills clean as to not to spoil the meat, also she took the opportunity to fill up the water canteens she had brought with her then she turned and hurried back through the jungle to be reunited with her mate, but as she was closing on her, no their cave she heard something that made her heart sink, a loud very familiar screech echoed through the trees.

Tik eleth stopped moving and switched her visors imaging system, it appeared that she and Ack had not got all of them back in their cave, rapidly she looked around herself as she kept hearing rustling in the trees, suddenly an itch on the back of her neck caused her to spin around swinging her wrist blades as she went, her instincts proved bang on as it was just in time to catch one of them off guard as it leapt at her, the swipe cut both of the creature's outstretched arms off at the elbows and rapidly before the metal began to dissolve she plunged the blades straight into the stricken creatures stomach and tore upwards disemboweling it.  
Instantly Tik eleth had to release the rapidly dissolving blades from her arm before the acid ate into her vambrace, then hearing a second screech above her she dove into a roll just as it dropped from the tree above her, it whipped its razor sharp tail at her but the tip glanced off her armor making a rather nasty gouge, it hissed at her and screeched then just as it tensed to leap at her its entire head exploded into a green cloud of mist.

Over 400 meters away through the scope of the AS50 Jack watched as the bug's head exploded, "You fuck with my woman you fuck with me cunt!!" He said with venom,   
the second he'd heard the screech in the distance he'd grabbed the big sniper rifle and had run out of the cave, he somehow knew that if those bugs were about he knew his Tik would not be far away and lo and behold there she was, she turned to look in the direction of the cave as she heard the massive report of the rifle, then she turned to look at the last of the bugs, it was trying to retreat into the trees to escape the wrath of the now rather pissed off huntress below it, "No you don't fucker" Jack said squeezing the trigger of the massive rifle,  
the branch it just leapt to exploded and collapsed under it sending it screeching to the ground, the second it hit the ground Tik was on it with those daggers of hers, it never stood a chance and he grinned as with a huge roar of victory Tik held its head aloft with one hand and beat her chest plate with the other, he stood up and gave a roar of his own as he lifted his rifle aloft with both hands in celebration.

Tik eleth climbed hurriedly back to the cave, the short battle had got her blood really pumping and she was craving the touch of her male, as she entered the cave he was stood there with the big projectile weapon up on his shoulder with barrel aimed upwards, he was showing her his warriors teeth, she instantly turned and closed the cave up before turning and almost tearing off her mask, she threw it and her lizards to one side before she flew across the cave snatching Ack up into her arms opening her mandibles as she did and pulled him into the most passionate of kisses, their tongues wrestled and danced first in her mouth then in his, then she began pushing Ack backwards towards the bed, she knew that he still wasn't healed enough to risk mating with him but her hunger for him was raging like an inferno and if she didn't satisfy it then she didn't know what she would do, but at the same time this seemed to be a good time to try out that idea she'd had earlier.

Before he could say a word Jack found himself on his back on the bed with Tik bearing down on him, Tik almost tore her armor and clothes off throwing them to one side, his eyes drank in the beautiful body of the huntress he loved before him, his body instantly reacted to her exquisite naked feminine curves and she instantly reacted to that reaction, as she spied the growing bulge in his trousers she pretty much yanked him off the bed in her efforts to remove them and his underwear, but like she would in all things the huntress succeeded in reaching her prize, as Jack's manhood sprang free, he wasn't much more than average by human standards at only seven inches, but Tik's eyes instantly locked onto her prize and she gently took it in her hand being careful not to hurt her male,   
"Tik...." he began to say as the delicious feeling of her rough hand pulsed through him as she gently played with his manhood as she marveled at it, her hand stroked up and down the throbbing shaft and she pulled at the skin she realized it retracted and she pulled it back to reveal the pulsing bright purple head, then she looked him right in the eyes,  
"Shhhh my love, I need to taste of you and please you the same way you've tasted and pleased me" she said in a highly seductive tone and before he could even respond Tik opened her mandibles and her long tongue slid out of her mouth and coiled around the head of his manhood tasting all over it, he hissed in pleasure as his mind flooded with the incredible sensations of feeling her long tongue coiling over and tasting his burning flesh, all potential arguments went out of the window, then just before he collapsed completely flat on his back he just had time to see Tik take the entire thing into her inner mouth engulfing him in warm wet heaven.

As soon as she'd removed his lower coverings and she'd got her first look and touch of his maleness and she knew that she had to taste him, he was bigger than she'd ever dared to hope, easily being on par with a Yaujta male, but he was a very different shape. The second the delightful musk of his arousal had hit her nostrils it had taken all her strength not to plunge it into her inner mouth right then but now as her tongue coiled around and tasted it from base to the wonderful tip her mind was clouded with lust, the wonderful salty musky taste filled her senses she began to use her throat and tongue to milk it pumping it up and down in her inner mouth trying also to make sure she didn't drag her sharp teeth over his sensitive male flesh, the first time she heard him moan in pleasure it drove her crazy and spurred her on, now that she knew that her actions were bringing the male she loved pleasure she would not stop until she had claimed her prize and had tasted his male essence as he had tasted hers.

Jack was in heaven, he could feel every ridge and every bump in both her mouth and her throat, he had experienced oral before but nothing even remotely close to this, as her throat squeezed the super sensitive tip he felt her tongue coiling over and sliding up and down his shaft working it as its grip was surprisingly tight, he felt Tik purr as he let out a moan of pleasure which caused her throat to vibrate along the tip and some of the shaft, this drive him crazy and he knew that if she kept this up there was no way he'd last long at all she was just too good.  
Jack's prediction came very true as after only a few minutes of Tik's intense sucking he could feel his balls tightening,   
"Ohhhhhh Tik I'm going to........" he started to day to try and warn the huntress but it only made her suck even harder, what felt like an explosion went off in Jack's body sending him into convulsions and he felt his seed pumping straight into her mouth and throat.

Ack’s essence shot into Tik eleth’s mouth, coating her tongue and hitting her in the back of her throat, she instantly swallowed it hungrily loving the raw taste of her male's seed on her tongue, she never tasted or felt anything like it and it awoke something primal in her as she made sure she got every drop of it, after she was done she let his malehood slide from her mouth and she closed her mandibles, she looked up at Ack with a smile happy that she had given him pleasure like he had given her, she expected him to be laid there in a stupor like she had, but it seemed her beloved male had other ideas.

Jack pounced on Tik and with surprise on his side flipped her onto her back on the bed, he pressed his face to hers signaling for her to open her mandibles for him to kiss her, she did so happily and he plunged his tongue into her mouth wrestling with hers, he could taste himself in her mouth but he didn't care, his passion made her purr happily and when he withdrew from the kiss he looked right into her shining purples eyes,   
"You're not the only one who needs a taste my love" he said in a soft almost growl like voice, Tik purred intensely at this knowing exactly what he meant even before his hands began to caress her skin or before his kisses were being planted all over her body.

Jack kissed all the way down her body being driven crazy by the spicy smell of her divine arousal, it wasn't long before he reached his prize and lifting Tik's long legs over his shoulders, he parted those gorgeous puffy swollen outer lips of hers and dove his tongue into her desperate to once again taste her sweet spicy nectar, Tik roared and growled in ecstasy as she felt his tongue intruding in her body, granted he wasn't able to get it very far into her but her didn't need to, as the length that managed to gain entry was just enough to reach all the right spots, she thrashed and bucked as his tongue tasted every ridge and fold of her inner most walls, again his nose ground against her clit and this time it was Tik's turn to not be able to hold on very long, as after only a few minutes after his intense tongue kiss of her womanhood began the same bomb that she detonated in him he now detonated in her and with a huge passion filled roar she clamped down on his tongue and his mouth flooded with her sweet spicy nectar.

Crawling back up his now sated lover Jack was instantly pulled into a tight bear hug onto of her again, their naked flesh pressed tightly together as they clung to one another,   
"You are incredible my love" he murmured in her ear lovingly,  
"As are you my mate" she replied sounding breathless, he gently nuzzled the side of her head and she turned to face him and nuzzled him back, "Did I make you happy?" She asked,   
he smiled broadly at her,   
"Tik simply being with or near you makes me happiest ooman alive, everything else you do is just one big wonderful bonus" he said gently stroking the side of her face with her hand, she lent into his touch with a purr,   
"As you make me the happiest huntress to live Ack, my kind could do with learning a lot about love from yours" she said softly and with a hint of sadness in her voice,  
he nuzzled her again,   
"I'm only too happy to teach, but only to you" he said softly as he laid down on her big shoulder, she pressed her forehead to his happily and with that a blissful sleep stepped claimed them both for a while.


	13. Bug Hunt

Waking up slowly Jack quickly became aware of heavy pressure on his chest and founding himself struggling to breathe a bit as well, also he found that none of his limbs seemed to want to move either, as a panic started to build in him he realized that it felt like his limbs were being pinned down by something heavy, through the fog of his sleep addled mind a realization hit him and he snapped his eyes open. There laid squarely on top of him was Tik, she was sleeping soundly with her head on his shoulder now, obviously at some point in the night they’d swapped positions, if he’d been able to draw a full breath of air he’d have laughed.  
Slowly wiggling both his arms he managed to free them from under the sleeping huntress and once he’d got feeling back in them he placed them on her back, gently he stroked the strong muscles of the woman he loved and she reacted by purring softly in her sleep, he loved the feel of her rough skin under his fingers so much, he couldn't resist running his hands down her back and feeling her feminine shapely rear, her glorious buttocks actually felt like they were carved out of solid steel, it was like the saying ‘buns of steel’ was literally made for her, as he stoked her perfect bum Tik’s purr intensified and he actually felt her shift her hips to press her rear into his hands. A funny thought occurred to him, only seconds ago his mind had been about to go into full panic mode but now it was calm despite the fact he was no less pinned, but he didn't care as long as she was comfortable and given the fact he’d slept on her multiple times it was kinda nice to serve as her pillow for once.

Tik eleth woke up wondering why her pillow seemed to have a heartbeat, she looked up with a confused look on her face to find Ack smiling back at her,  
“Morning beautiful sleep well?” he asked,  
she nodded slowly reaching up to clear the sleep from her eyes before they focused on him properly,   
“I sleep like a cub” she said still sounding sleepy, it was at that point she realized that the pillow with a heartbeat was indeed Ack’s chest and somehow she was on top of him.  
Jack couldn't help finding sleepy confused Tik as the most adorable thing ever, granted there weren't exactly many who would ever refer to a Yaujta as adorable, in fact they’d probably get shown their own entrails for saying it out loud, but to Jack who was now watching the massive blooded huntress trying to figure out how she seemed to be on top of him with a look of complete confusion plastered on her beautiful face, she was utterly adorable, he reached up with one of his now freed hands and placed it on the side of her face only for her to close her eyes and lean into it, then she brought up one of her large hands and held his in place giving him a close up view of her hand, as he saw it he realised that despite the large size of her hands that her fingers themselves were actually quite slim and dexterous, granted her fingers were much bigger than his own well all except for her pinkie finger which was roughly the same width as a human middle finger, a sudden idea hit him and he brought his other hand off her rear and under her body to his own chest, he took hold of the necklace he wore and pulled it free snapping the cord.  
Jack held up the gold ring that been wearing around his neck since he’d lost Sandy, it looked like it would fit perfectly on Tik’s little finger, at this point she was completely clueless to what he was doing as she still had her eyes closed leaning into his touch of the side of her face purring slightly, a sudden ripple of to his left side drew his attention as he looked through the ring and he turned to look, in the shadows he could have sworn that he saw Sandy standing there smiling giving him a thumbs up, he shook his head and looked again but she was gone, but it warmed his heart to know that she was still watching over him, one of the promises that they’d made to each other is that no matter where they were they would always have each other’s back and it looked like death hadn’t stopped her from keeping her word, Typical Sandy not even God could tell her what to do.

Jack reversed his hand on Tik’s face and took hold of her big hand, then bringing it up to his own face he slipped the ring onto her little finger and to his absolute surprise and sheer joy it was an absolute perfect fit, it was as if it had been made for her.

Tik eleth opened her eyes to look at what Ack had done to her hand, she felt him place something on her little finger, as her eyes focused she saw the most beautiful ring made in gold with sapphires, rubies and diamonds had been placed on her finger, the stones on the top of it were arranged into a strange but oddly pleasant pattern of red white and blue.

She looked at Ack questioningly, “It’s a symbol of eternal love between oomans, we give the one we have pledged ourselves to a ring to show that our love will last forever, it’s given between husband and wife or as your kind would say, life mates, it shows that wherever we are we carry our love with us” he said, she looked back at the shining ring now on her little finger and her heart nearly burst with joy as she saw the little ring glinting in the dim light, she couldn't help but adore these ooman rituals they were so amazingly intimate and loving, she reached up and pulled Ack into a tight hug pulling his face to hers, “Thank you Ack it’s beautiful” she said, 

“As are you my love” he replied nuzzling her, suddenly an idea struck her and she quickly detached herself and sat herself up on her knees straddling his hips but keeping the majority of her weight on her knees as not to hurt him.

Jack couldn’t help but admire the naked body of his beautiful huntress as she was straddling him now, she seemed to be looking at her dreadlocks for some reason, she was quickly flicking through them one at a time while he watched her, then she found the one she wanted and she removed a silver and gold twisted ring from it, then she took his left hand from her thigh where both of them had been gently stroking her, she held up the ring against his hand before sliding it onto his ring finger, it was a perfect fit and inadvertently she managed to place it on exactly the right finger as well, then she looked at him with a massive smile on her face, “A symbol of my love you my life mate, now you take me and my love with you wherever you are, as I carry you and your love with me” she said holding up her ringed hand next to his, then gently she took his hand in hers and took it up to her chest placing it against her skin so that he could feel her beating heart, he looked at her smiling, “This beats for you now Ack and it always will and I place my life in your hands and you have placed yours in mine” she said, then she leaned down opening her mandibles as she did and kissed her beloved male.

After their kiss broke Jack became aware of that delightfully spicy smell that signaled that Tik was becoming aroused, he smiled as he realized that it wasn’t just the heat of battle that got her going and that somewhere deep down in that tough battle hardened shell beat the heart of a true romantic, seeing the position they were in a devilish idea struck him, “Tik will you do something for me?” he asked, she tilted her head curiously,

“Of course my love name it” she said, 

“Turn around so that you are still in that position but facing the other way” he said, she looked confused at this request but did as her love asked, she stood up and turned around before kneeling back down, now she was faced towards his feet with her back to him,   
“Like this?” she asked,

“That’s right now shuffle backwards till I tell you to stop” he said, this obviously confused Tik even more but again she did as her male asked and she began to shuffle backwards being careful to keep her weight mostly on her knees as she moved over his chest. From his point of view was rather spectacular as Tik leaned forwards placing her hands on his body to counter some of her weight while keeping her balance, he got a rather nice view of her spectacular rear end getting closer to his face, then just as she moved again her legs hooked under his arms and he found himself looking straight up into her beautiful feminine flower which was glistening signaling her arousal, “That’s perfect stop there” he said.

Tik eleth was confused by her love’s request but she’d done it for him anyway, now she found herself kneeling over his face looking down towards his feet, suddenly she realized exactly what Ack was up to as she felt his hands trail up her inner thighs and stop when they reached her womanhood, she felt herself being opened up and felt her male’s wonderful hot breath on her most intimate area and suddenly she knew what was coming next, a delightful shiver passed down her spine in anticipation of what he was about to do to her, then she felt it the wonderful sensation of her male’s tongue tasting her burning flesh and swirling around between her lower lips, she growled softly as she felt him move his mouth to gently suck on the top of her womanhood taking that little hard thing between his warriors teeth and rolling it, this sent bursts of pleasure through her and caused white flashes in her vision, then she felt his tongue worm its way upwards and inside her tasting its way around her inner walls till it found that little spot towards her belly and she instantly felt her knees begin to tremble, this caused her to have to lean forwards and place more of her weight onto her hands, that’s when her eyes locked onto Ack’s malehood standing proudly up towards her from under the covers, she growled hungrily as she saw it and then she had a devilish idea of her own.

Jack was busy swirling his tongue over Tik’s G-spot so he didn't immediately notice that his beautiful huntress was up to something, he put her shifting her weight around and adjusting her angle much lower to her trying to get comfortable, he was busy gorging himself on the sublime taste of his woman and listening to her growls and wails of pleasure to even notice what she was doing well that was until his manhood was suddenly seized and plunged into a world of liquid heat, he broke his deep tongue kiss for only a few seconds as a loud moan escaped him and glancing downwards he saw Tik with her mandibles caressing the sides of his manhood and her long tongue coiled around him, he smiled broadly as she glanced under herself and caught his eyes with a very seductive look in her eye, then he instantly returned his tongue into her and the battle commenced each battling to give their lover as much pleasure as they could, each of their bodies stopped responding to commands and began to work on a will of their own a deep primal will that neither of them had any control over as they both worked feverishly on their lover’s most sensitive organs with their mouths. Jack adored the feeling of Tik’s tongue coiling and squirming all over his manhood milking him from hilt to tip not to mention the suction the tip of her throat created as she pushed the tip in and out slowly, on Tik eleth’s side she was lost in the sensations of Ack’s tongue caressing every fold of her inner walls and using that strong muscle to massage her inner most areas as well as him sucking on and rubbing his dexterous fingers all over her lower lips as well as her little pleasure button, pretty soon the battle turned up the pace and resulted in a perfect draw as both of them reached a mutual and highly intense climax as both of their essences flooded into each other’s hungry waiting mouths at exactly the same second drawing gurgling growls and roars from them both as they struggled to experience and vent their own pleasure while reveling in that of their lover.

Afterwards Tik eleth turned herself back around and laid herself back down on top of Ack, she straight away kissed and she knew that while she could taste her own essence in his mouth he would taste his in hers as their tongues wrestled, but rather than revolting her it invigorated her, she adored pleasuring her male as he seemed to adore pleasuring her, when they finally broke their kiss she placed her head down on his shoulder and stroked his cheek, “Ack is very sneaky” she said and she heard him laugh,

“Sorry I figured you wouldn't be expecting that and I couldn't resist” he said between chuckles, she purred as she felt his hands stroking her skin, then she looked up into his bright sapphire eyes,   
“I was not but now I know Ack’s tactics I will be prepared for sneaky pleasure attacks in future” she said smiling, this set him off laughing again which pleased her as she loved to see him happy,   
“Guess I’ll have to up my game to catch you off guard again then won’t I?” he said devilishly, she purred at him as his hand came up and stroked her cheek,   
“As will I, be prepared for my counter attacks my love” she said,

“I look forwards to it” he said still smiling and with that they both just laid there for a while in silence just enjoying each other’s company.

Once they managed to drag themselves away from each other they’d gone and done their separate ablutions, now Tik eleth was preparing the shimmer lizards for their breakfast while Jack was inspecting his wounds which Tik had treated with her medikit.   
“That stuff you put on these things when you stitched me up works wonders, these bad boys are pretty much fully healed up, even the burns on my hands are almost totally gone” he said marveling at the healing properties of the Yaujta medical equipment, Tik eleth looked up from the pot she was currently working over, her eyes roamed over the body of her male and saw what he was talking about,   
“Yaujta medicine very powerful, they’re designed to keep hunters in the fight as long as possible, but wasn't sure it would work on an ooman” she said admiring his body,  
Jack continued to check himself over now aware of Tik staring at him, without turning to face her he simply smiled to himself, it felt nice to be admired by the one you love,   
“See anything you like?” he asked without turning to look at her,  
for someone her size she moved like a ninja’s shadow because he never heard her leave the pot and didn't even know she was behind him till her massive hands suddenly appeared on his chest,   
“I see the male that I love” she said in a matter of fact voice pressing her face into the back of his neck, Jack grinned as his own words got used back on him, then he turned in her embrace and held her against him, “As he loves you” he replied softly into her chest.

As they ate their breakfast of shimmer lizard stew Jack decided to address a problem that was troubling him, “I think we’re going to have to exterminate our bug problem” he said with a mouthful of stew, Tik looked at him curiously while she chewed her own mouthful, 

“Bug problem?” she asked after swallowing, Jack nodded,

“The kiande amedha, we need to deal with those fuckers or they are going to continue to cause us problems and we can’t afford to be fighting them when the bad bloods show up as they’ll need our total focus” he said gesturing with the fork he was holding,   
Tik eleth thought about this for a moment before she nodded, 

“Agreed, they need to be killed before we can plan for the bad blood arrival” she said, 

“Then we need to head back to that cave and wipe them out, but first I think we’ll need a few things” Jack said, Tik looked at him curiously,  
“I’ll need you to show me where the other dead humans you found are” Jack continued and this really confused Tik but she nodded her agreement and together they finished the remainder of their meal in silence both lost in their thoughts.

The bodies of the other humans that had been dropped into this nightmare filled hell hole had not weathered the jungle climate well, this was the fourth one they’d looked at and Tik kept watch while Jack searched the body, he really didn’t like having to do this but getting a resupply of ammo and equipment here was impossible so all he could do was scavenge what he needed from the fallen, so far he’d kind of lucked out on his finds, the first body Tik had showed him was of a young man in his early twenties, he’d been pierced by a branch through his stomach and was effectively nailed to the tree, now to add to this both of his legs were now missing thanks to some sort of predator which had only managed to get that high, but the man had obviously been a sniper due to his Barrett M82A3 which was up in the tree attached to him.  
Jack had thought of taking the massive weapon but when he’d climbed up into the tree he could see that the impact with the tree had damaged the barrel of the weapon and a weapon you can’t trust is not a weapon but a hindrance. So Jack took all the clips for the weapon as the ammo was compatible with his AS50, he also noticed that the man didn’t have a side arm but he figured that had gone when whatever took his legs probably dragged it off with them still in its holster. He also managed to get some rations from him as well as some more medical supplies, the last thing he took was the man’s dog tags that showed he was a First Recon Marine sniper from the USMC, Jack had worked side by side with these guys more than once and had a lot of respect for their capabilities, then he closed the man’s eyes with his hand,   
“Sleep tight soldier your fight is done” he said before looking up into the alien sky,  
“Just one more soldier reporting in sir, his time in hell is done” he said quoting a line from a soldier’s prayer he’d learned when he was in, he just hoped someone was listening.  
Over the next few Jack had managed to get himself a new shirt, more medical supplies, a small but handy backpack, an M203 with a few 40mm grenades and two hundred rounds of ammo for it, he’d also found a variety of other rather useful toys but also he got four more sets of dog tags from various militaries around his home world, he just hoped that one day he’d get chance to send them home so their families may have some measure of closure however small.

But finally he felt ready and he and Tik headed for the cave of the kiande amedha deep in the jungle. They rarely spoke as they moved through the forest, although both of them were itching to converse with the other and to even share a kiss or two, but both of them were avid professionals and now was not the time for them to let the guards down, it was time to keep your head on the swivel looking for the enemy, especially as these fuckers had a really nasty habit of coming out of nowhere and in force.  
Word about the two hunters must have spread among the animals of this forest as fuck all showed itself during their entire trip, they reached the cave with no issues, Jack scanned the entrance to the cave through the scope of his AS50 while Tik had climbed up a tree and was sweeping the area with those sensors of hers, finally Jack signaled to her that he had nothing, she climbed down the tree and approached him,   
“I also see no movement” she said,  
“I don’t like it, it too quiet there’s no way we got all those fuckers if they were willing to spare some of them on a scouting party” he said,   
Tik looked at Jack in admiration, he was a true hunter as he respected his prey’s abilities and even admired them, these were traits of a true hunter,   
“What do you think their guarding in there? You know more about them than me” he asked looking at Tik,   
“It most likely a nest, which means there a good chance of a queen” Tik said,   
“Oh great, queen usually means big, pissed off and heavily protected” Jack replied,  
Tik nodded her head,   
“Queens are the most dangerous of opponents” she said,  
“Wish I brought that fucking minigun now” Jack said referring to the large M104 they’d found on one of the bodies of the dead humans.

Tik eleth looked at Ack for a moment before plan started to form in her mind, it was risky but against the odds of multiple kiande amedha and a possibly a queen they needed every advantage they could get, they needed something that played to both their strengths, now she knew that Jack could fight up close if need be as she’d seen him do it, but his major strength was that he could hit targets with that long barrel projectile weapon of his at a serious distance, her strength was in up close combat, she took a deep breath and turned to face him,   
“Ack I have a plan and you won’t like it” she said.

“I can’t fucking believe I let her talk me into this” Jack grumbled to himself,  
he was currently laid on a rocky outcrop overlooking the cave four hundred meters away watching the woman he loved making her way to the cave entrance on her own, they’d spent twenty minutes arguing over this, he did not want to let her go in there alone after the last time, but eventually she won him over with sheer logic, her plan was simple, she was going to go in quietly and stealthily, she would get as deep into the nest as she could and cause an absolute shit storm in there, this would rile up the bugs and make them chase her out of the cave, once outside this is where Jack’s expertise would kick in, using his rifle he would pick off the bugs as they scurried around out in the open and either soften up or kill the queen when she emerged, but he still didn’t have to like watching the woman he loved go into the cave of fucking death on her own without his back up.

Inside the cave was pitch black, if it wasn’t for her advanced optics Tik eleth would have been completely blind, as she passed the mountains of bodies near the entrance it hit her just what a gargantuan fight Jack had committed on her behalf, she was almost beginning to regret her decision to leave him outside, in fact a part of her wanted to run out and into his arms, not through fear but just a want to have one last hug with him before they faced their deaths, but she was able to push those feelings into a box in her mind, they were going to be victorious this day, alone they were strong, together they were unstoppable not just because they were both blooded warriors, but because they would fight to their last breath for the other.  
As she progressed deeper into the dank smelling cave she began to see the tell-tale signs of a large kiande amedha infestation, the walls had been coated with that black organic resin that they used to line their nests, she had to resist the urge to touch the stuff as she knew that it was sticky nasty stuff, instead she stroked one of the cylindrical objects that Jack had made her bring in with her, there were four of them clipped to the belt of her battle skirt and she remembered his instructions, ‘Pull out the metal pin and throw at the fuckers before running the fuck away’ he’d said, they were obviously some sort of grenade, they were one of the conditions that he’d made on letting her going in on her own, she remembered getting angry at him over this, but now she regretted it as she knew that he didn’t doubt her abilities, he just wanted to be there to back her up, what had he said to her now? ‘I’d rather die by your side knowing that I gave my life fighting side by side with the woman I love, live for one another die together‘ were his words, this had touched her heart but she’d know that this was the right course of action.  
The tell-tale quiet hisses and scratches told her that the kiande amedha were aware of her presence, she needed to hurry up or they’d intercept her before she reached her goal of the egg chamber, so Tik eleth abandoned stealth and broke into a full on run straight down the long wide circular cavern.

It wasn't long before the kiande amedha figured out what was happening and began to chase Tik eleth down into the depths of their lair, there seemed to be far more of them than she’d anticipated, it seemed that there must be a queen and that she’d been real busy here, now she found various drones crawling out of cracks in the walls ahead of her, the plasma caster on her shoulder fired as she ran, blowing them off the walls and making the remainder take cover, she couldn't allow them to slow her down, she needed to reach the egg chamber but just as she was thinking this she ran full tilt into a rather large pitch black chamber and immediately tripped over an egg sac booting it full force into the air. Tik eleth turned the fall into a roll to avoid the face hugger that jumped from the egg that she’d just full force kicked as she’d tripped on it, she was able to use her sword which she had ready in hand to slice it in half as she fell, the egg sac flew across the chamber and bounced off the back of something big and black, as Tik eleth stood back up she saw a rather large pissed off queen turning slowly to face her, around the chamber were hundreds of the egg sacs all secured to the floor with the slimy resin that she secreted.   
The queen had secured her oversized egg producing abdomen to the ceiling of the chamber with large sticky strands of resin, as soon as it spotted what had booted one of her precious eggs at her head the queen let out an almighty shriek, suddenly the chamber was filled with a cascade of shrieks and hisses as the drones responded to their queens call, Tik eleth looked around herself, there was no way to stand and fight in here as it would be suicide, it was time to follow Ack’s advice, as she used her plasma caster to fire short bursts into the closest drones that came her way she tore all of the grenades from her belt and pulled the pins on all of them, small leavers flicked off all of them and she pitched all of them at the queen’s abdomen and main body before with a couple more rounds from the plasma caster she turned on her heals and full on sprinted through the exit of the chamber back the way she’d come.

As she ran back up the shaft she was forced to duck weave and dance past the kiande amedha drones that dropped down at her from all directions, behind her there were a series of massive explosions and a whoosh of fire that followed her up the circular cave, it lit up the cave around her briefly as she ran and she saw more of them on the walls, it also had the bonus effect of setting some of the accursed creatures on fire, but for some reason they all seemed frozen in place as if confused by what had happened behind them, Tik eleth guessed that at least one of those grenade that Ack had given her was a pyro, because the chamber she was running from seemed to now be on fire and there was a hell of a lot of shrieking coming from it, suddenly the drones stopped chasing her and headed into the chamber to help their queen, but sudden heavy footfalls signaled that the queen had survived the blast and was now in pursuit and Tik eleth guessed she wouldn't be very happy that all of her freshly laid eggs were currently on fire, so putting everything she had into it she turned her run into a full on sprint as she headed for the exit.

Up on his rocky outcrop Jack was starting to get antsy, it felt like Tik had been that cave for what felt like ever, he knew that he had to trust the blooded huntress as she had just as much if not more combat experience than him and had fought these creatures many times, but the male in him still didn't like letting his female go into a cave filled with those nightmares all alone, even if his female could quite easily be described as a nightmare herself.  
Suddenly there was a deep rumble that seemed to come from underground and Jack recognized the effect of the super RDX grenades that he’d given Tik, to be fair these things had been amazing find due to their sheer power in such a small package, plus the pyro grenade if she’d used it would have lit those fuckers up quite nicely, then just as a smoke cloud started to pour out of the cave a familiar shape raced out of the smoke at full tilt taking a small trail of it with it and Jack’s heart leapt for joy as he saw Tik, but then it froze in horror as he realized what would be following her and he instantly lined up his rifle, just in time to see a whole world of nightmares given form start to emerge out of it right behind her.


	14. Call the Exterminators

Jack’s mouth dropped open at the sheer size of the queen of the kiande amedha, but as Tik reached the back of the clearing she waved her arms frantically and the signal brought Jack to earth, quickly he snatched up the small green device the that was on the ground next to his rifle, quickly he hit the clacker three times and set off one more surprise he’d set up for these fuckers.

Just as the queen let out a blood curdling shriek calling all her minions to attack Tik eleth a massive series of roars ripped through the air, when the smoke cleared most of the kiande amedha lay dead or crippled and the entrance to the cave was completely sealed shut with massive amounts of rocks, it seemed that those little curved mines that Ack had found really did pack the punch he’d said they did, out of the fifty kiande amedha that had swarmed out of the cave only about twenty were left standing and the rest were now buried under all those rocks that Jack had dropped on them with high explosives in the cave entrance.

The queen looked around herself in confusion as most of her warriors had just been shredded, the claymore mines and C4 combo had done their job beautifully, Jack could see the anger painted all over her face from where he was,   
“Suck on that bitch” he said quietly before lining up the scope on the AS50,  
she was just about to signal for her remaining warriors to attack when two spinning discs whirled through the air and took the heads of two of them clean off, as he glanced left Jack could see Tik in full on dance of death mode, he had to admit that when she was like this she was one of the most beautiful and scary creatures in existence, quickly he decided to help her out and as he watched he saw one of the bug circle around to her back, it’s head exploded in a shower of acidic mist as the big .50 hit it square on,   
“Nope” he said, the queen looked around for where the shot had come from but at this distance she couldn't see him heavily camouflaged in the rocks, he fired again and another bug’s head went pop, the queen started moving fast towards the battling huntress as she was dealing out cold metal and hot plasma death to her minions,  
“Fuck that bitch is going to blind side her!!” Jack exclaimed, she was dodging around too much for him to draw a bead so he decided to do the only thing he could, he fired at Tik.

As the sharp crack of one of Ack’s high velocity projectiles passed next to her Tik spun around to look at where her male was camped to see if he’d lost his pauking mind, that’s when she saw the queen closing in on her from behind in a zigzagging pattern, suddenly she realized he’d fired not at her but close enough to get her attention on the queen closing in on her, she was only just able to dodge out of the way as the queen’s massive tail slammed into the ground where she had been standing, she at that moment decided to leave the drones to Ack and his big gun and go after the queen, standing up she tapped her chest plate and pointed at the queen and then pointed at the drones and then at the forest not pointing at Ack so she wouldn’t reveal him, but she just hoped he got the message.

“Thank Christ!” Jack breathed as Tik rolled out of the way of the queen’s sneak attack,  
then he saw her doing some signaling with her hands, she pointed first at herself then at the queen, then at the bugs and then at the forest,   
“Read you loud and clear” he said grinning,   
then he lined up the closest bug and vaporized its head, he was going to give Tik a clear path to the queen, so now it was weapon’s free time, so Jack began to fire as soon as he had a bead.

As she squared herself off against the circling queen Tik eleth noticed the drones dropping left right and center as Ack picked them off, she couldn't help but be impressed by the marksmanship of her mate, he really was something else with that projectile weapon of his, the drones never stood a chance out in the open like this, suddenly the queen rushed her and broke her line of thought, she dove into a roll swinging her sword as she did, it connected with the armored skin of her leg and bounced off with little or no effect, as she stood up she fired off a few plasma bolts at her which made her move, as she did Tik eleth charged right at her with her one remaining dagger in one hand and the sword in the other, she jumped onto a rock near to her and jumped high into the air, with both her blades sweeping down in a swooping downward arc, but the queen saw this coming and slapped her aside with her tail mid jump, the impact to her midriff knocked the air out of her as she slammed hard into the ground, her instincts immediately told her to move and she barrel rolled sideways just in time to avoid the tip of the queens tail stab into the ground where she’d been, she stood back up roaring at her in frustration, to her right the last of the drones dropped dead on the ground, now it was just the queen left and by the look of pure hate and anger on her face she knew it.

The queen rushed Tik eleth again and swiped at her with both her claws, she saw these coming and jumped out of the way, what she didn't see was the low stab of her tail which she felt pierce her right calf, she let out a roar of pain and dropped onto her back as her legs were swept away by the long tail, the queen lined up and stabbed at the wounded huntress but she was able to move out of the way at the last second and with a blast from her plasma caster blew the tip of the queens tail right off, the queen screeched in both pain and anger, then with a swift flick she flicked acidic blood onto Tik eleth’s breastplate which instantly started fizzing and melting, she rapidly tore it off which also disabled her plasma caster which was attached to it, a sudden crack filled the air and the queens head jolted, she shrieked angrily, but the massive projectile from Ack’s rifle had just bounced right off her thick skull armor, but it had pissed her off royally as did the next two that did the same thing, but before Tik eleth was able to recover from her own hit the queen charged her choosing to ignore the sniper fire and this time connecting and opening up three large slash marks on her side as she tried to twist out of the way, it knocked her to the ground again and she was only just able to roll out of the way of the queens massive bite and her inner jaws shot out and tried to impale her, then as she watched the queen’s inner jaw was blown away in a shower of acidic blood at the thankfully missed her, the queen reeled back and screeched in agonizing pain, then a second blast took her left arm off at the shoulder and Tik realized what was happening, Ack had managed to draw a bead on the queen’s weak spots and had opened fire on her, quickly she seized her chance and while the stricken queen was reeling from the loss of her arm, she jumped up and ignoring the pain from her leg she jammed her dagger into the queen’s open mouth and closed it with a mighty punch to her lower jaw causing the dagger to burst out of the top of her head fracturing the armored hide and skull around it, the queen began to spin in a lazy circle like a drunk, the melting dagger sticking up out of her head had completely ruined all of the queens senses but had not killed her, she was swiping blindly with her claws and tail all around her as she spun in circles, but the massive hole that opened on the side of her head taking pretty much all of the brains in her skull out with it did the trick, the queen stood there motionless for a full ten seconds with no brains remaining in her now empty skull before falling dead on the ground.

Tik eleth instantly knew that the finishing shot had come from Ack, he’d somehow managed to hit the weak spot in her armored head created by her dagger, she hobbled over to the fallen queen and placed her injured foot on her dead body and roared their victory beating her chest as she did, in the distance she heard a return roar and she knew that her mate was also celebrating their joint victory, finally the kiande amedha were no longer a threat to them.

Jack hurriedly climbed down the rocky outcrop and then ran full tilt through the jungle to where Tik was waiting for him, he burst into the clearing in front of the cave and the huntress whirled towards him, he charged right up to her and threw his arms around her and felt himself instantly being hugged to death by the massive huntress, she actually picked him up off the ground and swung him around in a full circle, but he didn't care that would be the best way to die in his opinion.

“We are victorious my life mate” Tik eleth said releasing Ack from her tight embrace,   
he took a deep breath and flashed those wonderful hunter’s teeth at her,   
“Damn straight, but damn those fuckers put up a hell of a fight” he said,  
“They are not considered the most dangerous prey in the universe for nothing my love” she said, he nodded and then his eyes were drawn to her wounds,   
“We’d better get you patched up my love she really did a number on you” he said with concern plastered all over his face, Tik eleth felt her heart swell over her mate’s concern for her wellbeing,  
“They will make good scars to remind of a battle hard fought and won, me must claim a trophy of our victory” she replied proudly, he flashed her his warrior’s teeth again and shook his head, “Come on let's patch up first, trophy gathering later ok my love?” he said,  
she huffed and clicked her mandibles in a little bit of annoyance, her blood was really fired up over this victory and she wanted to gather some trophies to celebrate their shared honor, taking down a kiande amedha queen was no small feat and taking down an entire nest was a feat reserved for only the most elite of their warriors the ranks of which they had just entered, for the two of them to have achieved it was a testament to them as warriors and she wanted to celebrate it, she looked at him defiantly, but then he stood up from inspecting her leg wound to his full height in front of her, he reached one hand up and stroked the side of her face under her mask and her anger instantly melted away,   
“Come on my love, let me tend to those wounds of yours, it pains me to see you hurt and besides I need my mate to have her strength for later” he said with a soft tone to his voice,  
this caught her attention and she wondered if he was hinting at what she hoped he was, that would most certainly be the best way to celebrate a victory of this magnitude especially given how much her blood was fired up, so slowly she allowed herself to be led over to a log on the edge of the battle field where he sat her down and began tending to her wounds.

Between them Jack and Tik eleth treated and sealed up all of her wounds with what was left in her medical kit, it never failed to impress him just how hardy and just about unstoppable this woman he loved really was, she was like a force of nature, right now as he sat on the tree watching her she was buzzing around the battlefield collecting trophies from the felled bugs, he had to laugh when he’d seen her sizing up the queen’s head to see if it was worth taking, but in the end she’d settled on her hand and a few teeth and tail tips from the various others that lay dead, she also managed to find the queens tail tip which she held up triumphantly, then once she was satisfied she headed back over to him by the log, “Ack may I ask of you something?” she said in quite a serious voice, he cocked his head to one side in curiosity,   
“You can always ask anything of me” he said which caused her to smile under her mask, then she reached up and removed the hunting mask revealing her beautiful face, with her other hand she moved her dreadlocks to one side to reveal a mark on the side of her face, Jack was quite surprised that he hadn't noticed it before given how close they’d got, it looked like some sort of brand or burn but in the shape of a Yaujta letter, after inspecting it he looked back to her beautiful purple eyes which were watching him closely,   
“This is the mark of a full blooded huntress or hunter who has proved themselves against the kiande amedha, it is a mark of honor among my people” she said, Jack’s eyes flitted to the mark and back to her eyes, “Would you let me apply the mark to you to symbolise your honor?” she asked with what sounded like a mixture of nervousness and hope in her voice, instantly he could see just how much this meant to her and without another thought he grinned at her,   
“Go for it” he said, her face instantly brightened in a mixture of joy and surprise,  
“Really?” she asked with sounded like a squeal of joy which made his grin even broader, he nodded placing a hand to the side of her face,   
“When I told you that to me your happiness is worth any price, I meant it” he said, Tik instantly threw her arms around him again and squeezed him tightly, then once she released him she took one of the bugs hands and broke off a finger, Jack moved and sat down on the log as she straddled it to his side and slowly she began to draw the symbol onto his cheek, it burned like absolute hell but he bore it with a smile knowing that it made Tik happy to mark him like this, but after she’d finished drawing the first she drew a second one on the other side followed by a third one which she placed on his forehead.  
Using a bullet case from the .50 he looked at the marks reflected in the shiny metal, “What’s the other ones for?” he asked,  
“This one means queen killer and then this one is the highest one a hunter can receive, it means hive killer” she said first pointing at his cheek then at his forehead, the whole time she had a massive smile plastered on her face, he smiled at his new impromptu brands/tattoos, then her turned and took the finer that Tik had used to draw them on him,   
“Ok then your turn” he said, Tik looked at him wide eyes and then shook her head,   
“It was your strike that killed the queen and it was your trap and skill that killed most of the drones, I deserve no such honor” she said, Jack took her jaw in his hand softly and turned her face to look at him,   
“Don’t give me that, you fought just as hard if not harder for that victory, we are a team, honor for one is honor for both, I wouldn't have stood a chance on my own, we did it together so the honor and the victory is shared” he said, her eyes searched his and she saw the fire and determination that she shares in this victory, “And besides if you hadn't stuck that dagger through its head then my bullet wouldn't have got through, so as you can see without one the other would have failed” he said, the logic and kindness in his words fluttered her heart and she nodded, then she turned her head and pulled her dreadlocks back and allowed her life mate to apply the marks of honor to her skin, he decided to give them a matching set and put them in exactly the same spots that she’d done for his, with this done they shared a final embrace, “Shared honor, shared love” she heard him murmur into her ear, then slowly they got to their feet and began to make their way back to the home cave with Tik now supporting a new limp.

The walk back to the cave and the climb up to it was murder on Tik eleth’s leg but she endured it happily as she knew with every step she took she drew a step closer to her love fulfilling his promise to her, by the time they entered the cave her blood was firing on full burn, she closed the cave up with the wooden block and watched as Ack walked over to the weapon rack and put his weapons on it including his newly acquired ones, then off came his armor and as he pulled it up over his head his shirt came up with it revealing his toned muscled torso, that was as much as Tik eleth could stand, tonight she and Ack would consummate their pledge to each other and become true life mates.

Jack just about had time to turn around to see the huntress charge at him, he had no chance to pull is newly acquired top back down before she pulled it off over his head and pulled him into a tight embrace and he saw her mandibles open wide before his face was pulled into the kiss, her tongue plunged into his mouth and instantly began wrestling with his, he could feel the raw unbridled passion in her kiss and in her actions, her hands were rapidly moving all over his muscles as she drank in the feeling of his body and his skin, he knew exactly what she wanted and there was no way in a million years he’d ever say no to her especially as he’d all but promised her this as her rewards for their victory, there was no way he’d take that from her, or from himself.

Tik eleth felt one of Ack’s hands moving up her stomach and under her coverings till it was on her breast and instantly began playing with her teat, the other had found its way up under her battle skirt and was currently caressing up the crack of her rear, with a deft flick of her arms the top was gone, the feel of his hands on her skin and in such intimate places drove her crazy with desire, while still locked in the kiss with him though now his tongue had fought its way out of his own mouth and into hers, she managed to release her battle skirt and it fell away as they danced in circles around the cave their hands exploring the other in a frenzy, she felt his hands leave her and the clicks of his belt being undone and his lower coverings being removed, suddenly the air in the cave was filled with a mixture of her sweet spicy scent and his earthy musk, both of them drank in the scent of the other and felt their minds clouding with the most primal urges towards the other, Tik eleth felt Ack’s malehood spring up and bump against her stomach as it stood proudly between their now naked bodies, just as she reached down to grip it and claim it as hers she felt his hand travel round from her rear and over her hips till it slipped between her inner thighs, she felt his fingers slide up between her outer lips and straight up inside her fully aroused womanhood, at their intrusion inside her love canal she released Ack from the kiss to roar in pleasure as he began to feel around inside her, his thumb also seemed to have managed to find that hard little thing at the top and was now playing it in circles sending star bursts into her vision, she managed to find his malehood and gripped it roughly and began to stroke eliciting a hiss of pleasure from him as well, she looked into his sapphire blue eyes and saw the pure fire of desire burning within them, he wanted his female as much as his female wanted him and want him she did, no, want wasn't strong enough she NEEDED him right pauking now.

Jack was pushed backwards down onto the bed rather roughly but not violently, Tik sprung onto it and climbed on top of him trying to pin him down to the bed, but as she about to he sat up grabbed her arms and a very deftly executed move of very surprising grace that caught her completely off guard he whipped them out from under her and rolled with her, this managed to flip her on her back with him now on top of her pinning her down and holding her arms above her head, Tik growled in passion at her male’s spirit which added fuel to the already raging inferno in her loins, his face was only inches from her face as he gave her a passion filled but gentle enough to not break the skin bite to the side of her neck, this sent shivers of pleasure cascading down her spine, this male really knew his way to a female’s heart and she gripped him and powerfully flipped him again, but to her surprise his agility kicked in again and he was able to use her weight to pull her further over than she wanted to go and they she ended up on her back again, this time the bite was to her left breast and he even gave her teat a quick lick and suck before she roared at him and tried again, this time she succeeded in pinning him down and she gave a victorious roar,   
“Now I will claim my prize” she said in a passion filled voice as she looked into the equally passion filled sapphire eyes of the male she loved dearly, he flashed his warriors teeth at her and she plunged downwards to kiss him and she darted her tongue into his mouth and as she did she felt his hard blood filled malehood bump against her inner thigh as he moved his hips to support her weight as she mounted herself on top of him, she knew that he had finally submitted to her but the fight he’d put up had got her blood pumping even more than before, she reached behind herself and gripped his thick sizable human malehood and guided it upwards till it was lined up with her now dripping entrance, she was going to claim her prize but she was going to gift him his as well, herself.

As Jack lay there pinned under Tik’s weight he grinned up at her, never had he met a woman so passionate and he loved it, he’d decided that making her work for her prize was what she would have wanted and it had work beautifully, his resistance had driven her crazy with desire for him and she’d fought even harder to claim him, he’d had every intention of submitting to her in the first place but given that she was a huntress he’d figured she’d enjoy a bit of a chase, turned out he was bang on, he felt her grip his manhood with her hand but her love for him showed in the way that she was not rough with him as to hurt him and the look in her eyes told him that she was desperate for him to enjoy her as much as he was for her to enjoy him, she lined his manhood up with her dripping hot entrance and he could see from his angle as her dark green flesh parted to allow him entrance, he instantly felt the fully exposed head of his manhood being engulfed in what could only be described as hot liquid silk as she slid him a little way into herself, then she adjusted the angle to make sure she had it right before she dropped completely in one go and to his surprise he felt his manhood pierce straight through a barrier before it traveled all the way to her hot molten core, Tik had been until this very moment a virgin.

Tik eleth felt Ack’s malehood pierce her purity seal and a flash of sheer pain tore through her enough to make her roar in pain, but his manhood filled her so completely that she felt how tight her flesh felt around him, it felt like she’d been split in two and she had to hold her position for a moment in order to get used to the feel of him so deep inside her that he was pushing against her womb, but very rapidly the sensation of his malehood twitching and throbbing inside her and the sheer heat of it began to create a feeling of raw pleasure inside her, she opened her closed eyes and looked straight into the sapphire blue eyes of her male, he had some point sat up under her and was now sat with her kneeling over his lap looking up into her eyes, she could see the passion in his eyes, but also mixed in there was love and concern for her and it made her heart melt, she place her hands on his broad shoulders and she felt his hands take hold of her hips and using his shoulders for leverage began to move slowly off his malehood assisted by his lifting her hips, she instantly felt the large throbbing tip scraping along every ridge and fold of her inner walls, she pulled it almost all the way out before she sank back down onto him sheathing him inside herself again with a loud wet slap as their equally wet flesh made contact and she heard a moan of sheer pleasure escape him and it drove her crazy knowing that she was bringing him the same pleasure he was giving her.

The look in Tik’s eyes told him that she was ok, then she placed her large hands on his shoulders and he took hold of her hips and as she began to push up he lifted her, it was as his manhood began to retract from her that he realized just how deliciously tight she was and he could feel every muscle of her womanhood trying desperately to hold on to him and they pulled him out, then as she plunged downwards forcing it back into her to the hilt with a wet slap he felt his tip slam into the neck of her womb and he groaned as it sent a star burst of pleasure through him, slowly but surely they built up a very steady rhythm and the air of the cave was filed with the wet slaps of their flesh connecting over and over again and with their grunts and growls of pure passion and pleasure, each of them moaned the others name on more than one occasion, Tik let out a few roars of pleasure and soon enough their rhythm turned into a frenzy as the intense pleasure built up within them both, Jack could feel every one of Tik’s muscles pulsing inside her and trying to grip him tightly, it felt like he was being milked by a super tight molten silk glove as she bounced up and down in his lap, he growled with pure pleasure and Tik responded by opening her mandibles and gripping his face with them to kiss him, before she could react though he pushed his tongue into her mouth and their tongues wrestled in her mouth as he found himself inside her body in two separate places, then Tik released him and looked right into his eyes as she rode him harder and faster, “Together my Ack let us release together as one!” she said in a passion filled breathless voice, he couldn't speak only nodded as his mind had melted in the pure pleasure that her body had induced in him then he actually felt the deep growl of pleasure that escaped from her vibrate her entire body and he felt his orgasm come completely out of nowhere with such force that his mind was no longer capable of any thought other than the sensation of her clasping him so slightly inside her and every muscle milking him of every drop of his seed which was now being pumped straight into her alien womb, along with it he released a roar of pure primal passion as he called Tik’s name to the heavens.

The eruption of Ack’s intense release inside her body tipped Tik eleth over the edge, it was like an explosion of liquid heat pumping into her stomach and it blew her mind, she could feel her whole body spasming as his human seed pumped into her Yaujta womb filling her completely with his essence and the intensity tipped her over the edge and her own release ripped through her like a flash fire of pure pleasure,   
“OHHHHHHHHHHH ACCCCCCKKKK!!” she roared at the top of her lungs as she felt her tunnel clamp him and hold him in place and begin milking every drop of his delicious seed from him into her womb, as the spasms subsided she collapsed into his arms and he lay down on his back with her now panting on top of him, with her head on his chest, neither of them could speak for a solid ten minutes and it was nearly that long before her internal muscles released hold of his malehood, though finally it slipped from her body having now deflated and she shifted into a position where she was now laid properly on top of him and she wrapped her arms around her male and clung to him, the vulnerability had come back and she felt him grip her tightly against him calming her, then without saying a word she began to purr for him deeply and with that noise the only thing filling the air exhaustion claimed them both and they fell into sleep.


	15. Together As One

Chapter 15: Together As One.

Jack woke up from a rather vivid dream of being back on earth, he’d been walking hand in hand with Tik on a beach in the Maldives, it had felt so real that he could still actually smelt the salt spray from the sea.  
Suddenly he realized that Tik was no longer laid on top of him like she was last night, his heart almost skipped a beat till he felt the weight of her head on his chest and her rough arms wrapped around his waist, opening his eyes and looking down he realized she’d rolled off him and snuggled up to his side while he was laid on his back. He smiled at the massive huntress as she clung to his midriff, she was such an amazing contrast in her personality, on one hand she was this amazingly powerful and deadly Yaujta huntress, with more than enough strength and raw power to tear him and anyone who stood in her way in half, on the other she was this amazingly vulnerable and sensitive woman, he couldn't help but feel that he was the only one lucky enough to have ever seen this side of her and it made him feel like the luckiest man alive, to have won the love of this amazing woman he must have done something right.  
But now a thought occurred to him that made him spectacularly happy but at the same time worried, they were life mates now that meant that they would be together for the rest of their lives, that wasn't the part that worried him however because he couldn't imagine any other woman he’d have rather pledged his life and honor to, but where would they go now? There’d be no way they could go to Earth with her in tow and he seriously didn't think her clan would accept her back now that she’d taken an ooman as her mate, he got the distinct feeling that for Tik to have done what she’d done would be a massive dishonor or herself in the eyes of her clan, he figured that at best they’d exile her, that’s if they didn't just kill her and him out right. Then another thought swam into his mind and it made him smile again as he gently stroked the dreadlocks of the sleeping huntress on his chest, he really didn't care where they went as long as she was at his side, if they had to be nomads then so be it, for together they were unstoppable.

Tik eleth fought her body as it tried to pull her out of the wonderful dream she was having, she and Ack were involved in glorious hunt in the jungles of Nucellia Prime, they’d just brought down a Velexor lizard and they were both currently standing over their kill deciding on what trophy to take, but eventually her body won and she opened her eyes to find she had a rather nice close up of the scars on Ack’s torso, she couldn't resist the urge to reach up and stroke his scars and his skin, but then again why should she? He was her life mate now she had fully claimed this beautiful ooman as hers as he had fully claimed her as his. She reached up and began run her clawed fingers over his stomach, she traced her finger tips along each of his scars, as she did she thought about what this meant to her life now, what she’d done last night would have fully disgraced her in the eyes of her clan, the best she could hope for would be exile from her clan and would be stripped of her accomplishments and her family disgraced in front of the entire clan. She would be branded a race traitor and most likely killed along with Ack for what they had done, but just as this thought began to fill her mind with dread she felt Ack’s soft hand slide over her side and felt his other hand gently begin to stoke her dreadlocks and then something else hit her, Ack could also no longer go home to his people either as his people didn't even know that other races existed as a whole, so it wasn't like she could go with him to his world and claim him as her life mate in front of his parents as her traditions dictated, she felt him reach down and gently kiss her on the top of her head and he she heard his voice in a very soft whisper, “You are the guardian and protector of my heart Tik eleth, I’ll go with you wherever you chose to go, I’ll be at your shoulder protecting the most important thing in my life, I give up my world and I give up my clan, for you Tik eleth are my world and you are my clan now” he said softly. Tik eleth’s heart felt like it was going to explode with joy, she’d never imagined in her life that a male would be capable of words and ideals of such sheer beauty, let alone that she would have chosen him as her life mate, but here she was and now here choice was as clear to her as the morning sun, once she and her proud warrior of a life mate had defeated these bad blood pauks, she would take her life mate and start a new life far from the rules and regulations of her selfish clan, in his words he would be her clan now and she would be his.

As Jack continued to stroke Tik’s dreads and the side of her head he felt her stroking his chest and his stomach, he felt that there was a tenseness in her and he had a feeling what was causing it so he decided to try and put her fears to rest as best as he could and whispered his feelings into her ear, as soon as he did she lifted her head and took hold of his chin gently with her hands, she proceeded to look right into his eyes and he felt himself getting lost in the bright purple eyes of the beautiful huntress, “No one has ever spoken words of such beauty to me Ack, you too are the guardian of my heart as I give it to you and no-one else and I accept your proposal” she said, then as he watched her she rose up off him and got into a kneeling position facing him, she reached out her hand towards him and he could see that she blatantly wanted him to take her hands, so he got to his knees on the bed in front of her and allowed her to take his hands in hers, though he had to marvel at just how easily her hands drowned his. “I Tik eleth of the Shadow Claw clan hereby renounce my clan in the presence of the only living being that has ever truly cared for me, my life mate Ack, I pledge myself and my honor to him and him alone from this day forwards I am Tik eleth proud huntress of the clan Mason” she said, Jack was totally astounded, this had to be some sort of Yaujta wedding ceremony, but he had never felt so flattered and honored in his life, he knew what her clan meant to her so for her to totally renounce it and to attempt to take his family name was incredible, he knew that he had to give her a response and he could actually see the pleading in her eyes, but he knew that he had to get this right, he had realized rank and honor were super important to her people so he felt he needed to make sure that he worded this just right, plus this followed on with his feeling for her after he’d presented her with Sandy’s ring and she’d given him one from her dreadlocks, so holding an actual Yaujta wedding after a very human engagement only seemed right, so taking a deep breath he began, “I Jack of the proud ooman clan Mason in my role as patriarch of said clan do hereby accept the proud Yaujta huntress Tik eleth into my clan and bestow upon her the honor of my clan name, you are now and forever shall be Tik eleth proud matriarch huntress of the clan Mason” he said in a loud and proud voice, granted he did feel that it was supremely cheesy and he did feel a right wally kneeling here naked as the day he was born saying it, but he knew that his acceptance of her was important to her and he also knew that he’d have happily danced naked in a hall full of people if it would make her happy, but as it turned out his words hit the full on bullseye with Tik and to her they carried more weight than anything, as he looked at her the look of pure joy that spread across her face was very real, she threw her arms around him and pulled him onto the tightest of hugs that he could have endured without breaking his bones, “Thank you Ack, thank you so much for accepting me, I promise I will serve our clan proudly” she said softly in his ear and he could actually hear the raw emotion in her voice as it sounded crackly and choked, the mental image of a Yaujta crying swam into his head and was instantly dismissed, then he reached down and lifted her head up to face him and looked straight into her happy bright purple eyes, “No, thank you Tik eleth, for making me the happiest and luckiest ooman alive when you chose me to be your life mate” he said, she smiled broadly at him,  
“As you made me when you claimed me to be yours back in the cave of the kiande amedha” she said, then he leaned into her face and she opened her mandibles for him to kiss her, his lips pressed to her mouth and it instantly opened to allow him access, as his tongue slipped into her mouth hers immediately coiled around his and started to dance with him, her hands went to his sides and began to stroke his skin and she felt the fire staring to smolder in her as they kissed and given that suddenly she smelt an earthy musk in the air that sent her brain fuzzy, it seemed that she wasn't the only one starting to smolder, she broke the passionate kiss and looked right into his now burning bright sapphire blue eyes and was filled with and instant desire to submit herself to him as he had done for her, “Mate with me my love” she said in a rather breathless voice, he leaned in and nuzzled the side of her face,   
“You know we oomans know it by a different name that I think is more appropriate in this case” he said softly, she looked at him curiously, “We call it making love and yes my love I will happily make love to you” he said in a passion filled voice, all Tik could do was purr loudly in response these oomans really did have such beautiful ways of expressing their love.

Jack moved forwards and began to kiss Tik’s neck and she lifted her head up loving the feeling of his kisses on her skin, then with a fair bit of grace Jack was able to turn her and push her over onto her back on the bed, the big huntress lay there looking up at her male as he moved himself over her, but instead of taking her like she’d expected he started to kiss her skin again, he moved his kisses along over her shoulder and slowly down on to her chest, one of his hands began to caress her right breast while he kissed his way onto her left taking her already erect nipple into his mouth, he vigorously began to suck at it and nip it with his teeth, he could hear Tik hissing and purring in pleasure above his head and her hands found their way onto his head and began to move through his hair caressing his whole head, resting his weight on the huntresses body he was able to move his other hand down her stomach and between her thighs, gently he trailed his fingertips over the inside of her thighs tickling the sensitive skin there as he teased her by bringing his hand right up to her womanhood before moving away again back down her leg, he could feel the frustration in Tik building as she ached for his touch on her most intimate treasure. Finally, just when he thought she may burst he slipped his hand onto her and let his fingers trail over her rapidly swelling lips feeling the amazing softness of them in contrast to her rough skin on the rest of her body, he straight away noticed her clit rising proudly up and out from between her soaking lower lips, he quickly caught it between his fingers and gently pinched it between his forefinger and thumb, this caused Tik to give a roar of pleasure and also to buck her hips upwards which actually lifted him clean off the bed, after rolling it between his finger and thumb for a minute while he greedily sucked on her nipples he slowly pressed it under his thumb while he slid two of his fingers into her aching entrance and began to feel the tight burning hot inner walls of his beautiful female, she growled loudly as his fingers entered her and began to buck her hips to try and force them deeper inside her, he obliged and pushed them in as deep as they would go before bringing to withdraw and push them back in in a pistoning motion, her hips began to move in time with his actions and so did her loud moans of pleasure, then slowly he took his mouth off her nipple and began kissing his way down her toned firm stomach, after a series of kisses on her rough skin he reached his goal but instead of pulling his fingers from her he kept them inside her while he removed his thumb and as soon as her clit sprung up her took it straight into his mouth and began to suck on it.  
The effect this had on Tik was intense and she slammed her hips into his face as she let out a full on howl of pleasure, “OHHHHH ACKKKKK” she wailed as the pleasure bombarded her brain, then quickly she gripped his head and pulled it up from her, “I-I-If y-y-y-you keep d-d-d-doing that I’ll release” she stammered in a passion filled and totally pleasure addled voice, he smiled broadly, “Then release my love” he said calmly,   
“B-B-B-But…..” she stammered,   
“Just relax and enjoy my love” he said and returned his head to her aching womanhood taking her clit back into his mouth, true to her word only moments later Tik gave an almighty roar of pleasure and she screamed his name to the heavens, “OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ACKKKKKKKKKK!!!” she wailed loudly, as she did a jet of her love juices shot from her straight into his waiting mouth, then he quickly cleaned her up with his tongue by licking all around her swollen lower lips and sliding his tongue inside her for a quick taste around her burning slick inner walls before kissing his way back up her body till he was face to face with her, “I-I-I-I wanted to release with you my love” she stammered, he leaned in and kissed her all over the sides of her mandibles gently running his tongue over the tusk like teeth at the ends, “And you still can my love, I’m not done with you yet” he purred softly into her ear sending a shiver of expectation down her spine, then slowly he moved down her till his head was aligned with her breasts and his raging manhood was aligned with her, then he moved her legs wide apart so that he was nestled comfortably between them, then with a powerful thrust he slid his throbbing manhood fully into her sopping wet and totally aching hole.  
The feeling of being totally enveloped in her wonderful liquid heat was indescribable and he groaned into her chest as he felt her clamp her muscles down on him, she groaned and growled loudly as she felt her male push himself fully into her core, she pushed herself up onto her elbows so she could look into the eyes of her male as he took her, currently they were closed as he drank in the wonderful sensations that her body was creating in him as she gripped him tightly inside her, then just as he began to move and thrust in and out of her he opened them and what can only be described as a look of pure desire and love was swimming in those bright sapphire pools he called eyes, his eyes met hers as he continued to thrust into her body and she growled as the intense pleasure returned now joined by the truly indescribable feeling of her male twitching and throbbing inside her as the tip of his malehood scrapped and pulled at her folds causing her to growl and moan with every thrust, quickly he built up a steady and powerful rhythm as he thrust into her, then he did something surprising he kneeled back onto his haunches and lifted her legs pulling them upwards and onto his shoulders, this caused her bum and womanhood to change position and when he thrust into her now with a loud wet slap of his thighs hitting her buttocks his malehood touched totally different parts inside her along its path to her womb and it also seemed to find a spot of immense pleasure alongside her inner walls towards her stomach that caused Tik eleth to flare her mandibles and cry out in heavenly pleasure, this ooman mate of hers certainly knew how to make his female feel like a goddess, submitting to him was the best decision of her life, his thrusts became deeper and more powerful and the sheer pleasure turned every cognitive thought to complete mush, now all her brain contained her the sensations of his long throbbing shaft forcing its way into her and pushing her walls out of the way before scraping its way back out.  
Tik eleth knew that she couldn't hold on any longer as yet another of those bombs of pleasure readied itself inside her, “A-A-A-Ack p-p-p-please release with me!!” she begged her male stoking his face, she desperately needed to feel his delicious essence filling her again and she didn’t have to wait for his answer because at that moment she felt an immense burst of heat and liquid pleasure shoot into her core and it triggered her own release, “OHHHHH TIKKKKKK!!” Jack roared slamming his malehood to it’s hilt as he sent his entire load of seed into her hungry womb, at the very same time she flared her mandibles, “OHHHHHHHH ACKKKKKK!!!” she roared in return as her release blew her mind into a million tiny pieces, her orgasm tore through her like a firestorm and at that moment she’d had her hands on his shoulders now she involuntarily dug her claws into his shoulder tops drawing trails of blood down his back, Jack never felt a thing as right at that moment his mind was one big mush of feelings being caused by his manhood being gripped so tightly he couldn't move it and being milked vigorously of every drop of his essence, as soon as the apex passed they both collapsed, her onto the bed and him onto her, Tik’s legs slid down to either side of him and before he had chance to move she wrapped them around his waist and locked him in place but careful not to crush him with her mighty strength which considering her mind was totally blown was rather difficult, but she was going to keep her male in the place he belonged as long as she could, in her arms, in her body, in her heart and in her soul, for right now they were one flesh, one heart, one mind and one soul, a being of total love and pleasure.

After a rest where they both basked in the post coital bliss of the other they decided to get up and have something to eat, well that was until Jack actually stood up and realized just what a mess his muscles were, it seemed that loving a Yaujta female in the most natural beautiful way wasn't so easy on the human male body, especially if that body was still injured from conflict and had been running on adrenaline the whole time, he doubled over as the pain rocked through him, the second she noticed her male waver Tik was by his side her hands on his shoulder and side, “Ack are you alright?” she asked with obvious concern in her voice, he nodded slowly,   
“Sorry my love it seems I’m a little sore from our nuptials, I just need to limber up and stretch the kinks out of these muscles of mine” he said, Tik eyed him curiously as he moved over to a part of the cave and began to stretch, he began using a mixture of both yoga and martial art stretches and as he did he had an idea, he’d noticed Tik watching him curiously as he bent over and grabbed his legs forcing the muscles to stretch out beyond what their limits should be, “Would you care to join me my love?” he asked, she looked surprised and curious at the same time,   
“I know no such poses or exercises” she said, he beckoned her with his hand and she moved over to him,   
“That’s ok I can show you some and I’m sure that you know something form the Yaujta fighting styles you know, surely they have moves which you to brace the body ready for combat” he said, she thought on this for a moment before nodding, she had studied under her grandfather who had been one of the most celebrated unarmed fighters in her clan and he’d always said that the body was a weapon in itself and needed to be maintained properly or it would malfunction when you needed it to work the most, so this seemed like a rather good idea.  
For the next hour it was like a martial art cultural exchange, Jack showed Tik moves to keep her body supple and free and she showed him what the Yaujta did to the same effect, after they were totally limber and his muscles felt great Jack grinned as an idea struck him, “Ok next up I’m going to show you something we oomans use to repair and free up locked up muscles, so I need you to lie down on your front on the bed” he said, Tik looked at him curiously but did as he asked laying down with her arms crossed under her head, Jack clambered up on the bed, his original plan was to kneel beside her but because of her size it turned out to be easier to straddle her bum and hips and to work from there, Tik looked over her shoulder at him curiously, well she did until Jack began to massage her muscles deeply and then her eyes began to flutter as the joy and pleasure of what he was doing hit her and they closed on their own and she began to purr involuntarily.

Jack found that massaging Tik’s back and shoulders were like working on solid steel, but he delighted in the amazing feel of her skin as he pushed into the muscles hidden underneath forcing the blood vessels to open up and cause the skin to heat up, she was purring loudly as he moved his hands over her shoulders and worked his fingers into the gaps deeply trying to get the knots out, it was clear that she hadn't ever had anything like this because he could feel knots the size of his fists in both her back and her shoulders as he worked, then slowly once he’d done her back and shoulders it was the turn of her lower half, it was already hard enough to keep his mind in check and stop himself from getting aroused while touching the naked body of the woman he loved while being naked himself, but turning around and having a major close up of Tik’s amazing rear was threatening to push him over the edge especially as he had to massage it, the second his hands touched those glorious orbs of hers her purr intensified tenfold and that was like music to both his heart and his loins, but he forced himself to remain in control and he worked his way down her amazing toned legs right down to her massive feet, then he got the shock of his life, as he began to massage the soles of her feet Tik started making a very unusual noise and flicking her feet, it took him a second to realize that she was ticklish and she was actually giggling!

Tik eleth had no idea what her beloved Ack was doing but it felt absolutely incredible, she could feel her hands forcing her muscles apart and she felt heat rushing into them as his hands worked, as he worked over her back and then up to her shoulders she began to feel better than she ever had well except for when she was one with him in that beautiful act oomans delightfully called love making, but then when she felt his hands massaging her behind it became hard for her to maintain her focus as lots of amazing imagery flooded her mind and she had to fight the rising heat back, as intimate as this act was it wasn't about that and she didn't want to lose it and pounce on him as much as she knew he wouldn't mind or object, but then as he made his way down to her feet suddenly she found herself full on laughing and she didn't know why as she felt his fingers tracing their way around the soles of her feet it just burst out of her like a bomb going off and before long she was in fits, when she finished she turned over and she found her mate kneeling there showing her his warriors teeth obviously amused at this and she instantly returned his smile, “Your turn now my mate” she said and he nodded, now it was her turn to try and touch her male in that most delightful way, as she raised up she suddenly realized that her body felt as light as air, whatever this amazing thing that oomans did was it made her feel incredible, she severally hoped that this was not a one off and besides it was a wonderful excuse to feel her male touch her all over her body before being able to touch him as well.  
Tik’s movements were far less precise than his, but he’d leaned the skill when he was a kid doing both Ninjutsu and Jujutsu, it was a skill well learned as one of his sisters was a dancer and was constantly getting leg injuries that only he seemed to be able to sort out, so he had years of experience on her but Tik in typical Yaujta or maybe t was just typical Tik fashion threw herself into it and although she straddled his hips she kept the majority of her weight off him and in her legs, but to his delight she did sit on him a bit, he had to admit he loved the feeling of her weight bearing down on him, now he felt her hands working into his muscles and he felt the knots releasing as she worked up and down him, then she got to the soles of his feet and the exact same thing that happened to her happened to him, he collapsed into fits of giggles and she was able to get her revenge by tickling him, but this time both of them laughed together.

After they were done Tik eleth looked at her mate, “What was that which we just did my mate?” she asked,  
“It’s called a massage, it’s used to free up damaged and stiff muscles and to get blood back into them to speed up healing, but between couples or mates like ourselves it’s also a nice way to express your love for one another in an intimate way” he said, she smiled this was going in her diary, she wanted to document this wonderful ooman practice, if someday it was read by another female Yaujta it may help to sway them towards taking one of these beautiful creatures as their mate and to break free of the shackles that their clan had imposed on them, maybe the key to a love revolution lay in as something as simple as this delightful practice because the Yaujta had nothing even remotely as wonderful or as intimate as this, if her words found their way into the mind of an even slightly curious female it might be enough to push her to seek it for herself and oh what a wonderful train of awakening and discovery awaited her, she was also going to document every little detail of her and Ack’s love making and if that didn't do it nothing ever would.

As he prepared breakfast for them Jack kept flicking his attention to Tik who was frantically scribbling in her diary, she had been intently focused on it for at least an hour, she was like a woman possessed trying to capture every little detail before they slipped her mind, he grinned as he watched her, he got the feeling that life being married to a Yaujta woman was going to be interesting to say the least, but it also made him smile, there was so many things that they could teach each other and so much for them to learn together and about each other, he sighed happily as he watched the woman he loved scribble away, he had to admit that he’d never looked forwards to something so much in his life, because no matter where he went she would follow and visa versa, from now on he was part of an unbreakable team and nothing made him happier.


	16. Depth of Despair

Tik eleth finished her writing after they’d had a delicious breakfast, it continued to surprise her just how well this male of hers could cook, this was one of the things that she wrote down in her diary, she was determined to get down every little thing that she learned about her beautiful male, then suddenly she noticed that Ack was dressed and was getting his weapons together, “Where are you going Ack?” she asked, he looked down at his hands which held the big projectile rifle before looking back at her, 

“Well since when I was injured it was Tik hunt Ack rest, now you’re injured it’s Ack hunt Tik rest” he said smiling at her, immediately Tik went to get out of the bed and to get her amour, that was till two ooman hands planted themselves on her broad shoulders and Ack’s rugged face appeared in front of hers, 

“I can hunt!!” she declared defiantly looking into his eyes only to be met with an equal measure of defiance in his, 

“Of that I have no doubt my love, but you’re also injured, you don’t have to do everything yourself anymore, I am here now and we’re a team, so today while you rest and get your strength back I’ll go and hunt to get us some food” he said with a defiant tone in his voice. Tik eleth growled at Ack in a defiant tone but she also knew he was right and it would be nice to take a break for once, so reluctantly she gave in and relaxed herself, Ack nodded at her smiling, but before he managed to stand back up she grabbed his shirt and pulled him forwards forcefully.

Jack was caught off guard by the surprise kiss that Tik pulled him into and it kind of reminded him just how strong the alien huntress was when she easily pulled him off his feet and into her waiting mandibles. After they parted Tik gave him a devious smile, “Come back with a bounty Ack you will need your strength” she said in a seductive tone hinting at the fact she was going to want a reward for letting him get his own way, he sighed and smiled at her shaking his head, 

“I’ll always have the strength for you my love” he said causing Tik to purr and click her mandibles happily as she laid back down on the bed, looks like that was the right answer, but as he looked over at the large naked purring huntress who was looking at him with an evil look in her eyes he got the distinct feeling he was going to need quite a few of those lizards.

As Jack stalked through the jungle he thought to himself that it might have been a good idea to ask Tik where those lizards tended to be, “Nope I had to be the big rough tough male didn't I?” he said to himself with a soft laugh under his breath, but then his thoughts drifted to his alien huntress again and he smiled, he couldn't believe just how surreal this situation was, he’d been kidnapped by big pissed off alien big game hunters to be hunted on a faraway planet and here he was completely head over heels in love with one of their own species who they also happened to be hunting, he couldn't believe how easily he’d just given up his entire life, his world, his home and everyone he’d ever known just for the chance to live his life with this woman, but then his smile widened when he thought that she’d done exactly the same for him, no woman had ever given up so much as an episode of their favorite TV show for him before, so to have found one willing to give up her life, her clan and her family just to be with him felt like nothing he could have imagined and he felt the love for her bloom in his chest like a rose, then suddenly he heard a voice and he snapped back to reality, he got into a crouch and listened, the voice was coming from his right but he couldn't tell what it was saying and he turned to see a rather large set of bushes, grinning he crawled up to the bushes and peered stealthily through them.

Stood in a clearing was tall Yaujta male, he was stood looking up at the sun as the rays beat down on him, he was wearing a golden armor over his shoulders and chest, from the back of his armor a long white flowing cloak billowed in breeze, he was armed with a completely white spear and his hunting mask was white as well, he was majestic looking and Jack couldn't help but be in awe of the figure before him, then suddenly the male turned to look right at him.

For what felt like an eternity the two warriors stared at each other in silence, Jack was wondering if he’d been spotted in his bush camouflage, then the male held out a hand and pointed at him, “Come Jack” he said in a deep gravelly voice that for some reason seemed to echo around in Jack’s head, before he knew what he was doing Jack had left the bush and was standing next to the male, he couldn't remember moving though, it was like his body was on auto pilot.

The male turned and walked into the jungle with Jack in pursuit, there were a billion questions firing around in his head, but for some reason his mouth refused to let him ask a single one of them, all he did was follow as the male walked through the jungle, but something he noticed both sparked his curiosity and freaked him out, that despite the male’s heavy footfalls sounding he noticed that he wasn't leaving a single track.

They walked for miles through the jungle in silence, then suddenly they just stopped right next to a small cave which was almost completely hidden from view by vines and greenery, the male pulled the vines apart and gestured to Jack to enter, before he knew what he was doing Jack stepped inside and the male let the vines drop behind him, “I have been watching you since you arrived here Jack, you are a fierce warrior and an honorable man, I have observed your actions and peered inside your heart and I judge that you are a man worthy of my great granddaughters love despite the fact that her clan would now see her as a disgrace, as I admit I once would have, but I know now that this is small minded and wrong and I Tan sel eleth am a man who is able to admit when he is wrong, love is universal and powerful and no-one has the right to tell another that their love is wrong, it is not limited to just one species and I know that no matter what you would die to protect her, you can ask no greater sacrifice of a male of any race than to die for the one he loves, I also see the love that you have for her as it burns around you like a great fierce white flame, it’s like the wings of a great Falmax dragon cloaking you, it gives you great strength and power as her love for you gives her the same, your aura’s are perfectly in tune with each other to the point where you are perfectly in sync with the other and I see that you will stand together against every odd the universe can throw at you both, so I judge you worthy to receive my gifts and I ask that you continue to protect my great granddaughter and keep her safe as she is my legacy” the male said in his deep echo filled gravelly voice, suddenly the words great granddaughter whirled around in Jack’s head and he spun around to face the male, only to find himself alone in the cave, he looked around franticly but there was no sign of him.

Jack had a creeping fear run down his neck here as he felt that something was totally not right, but at the same time he had an odd sensation in his mind as well, it was like a door that had been forced closed had now burst open and strange new feelings and emotions flooded his mind, but he couldn't tell where they were coming from, but what he could tell was that they were not human, it forced him to his knees as he endured the rush, images of battles and of warriors in great armor fighting mighty foes flooded his mind, then there was the feeling of betrayal and of great pain, warriors in white armor stabbed in the back by unseen foes but these foes held great significance, but there was one he could see, it was a large female warrior dressed all in black and for whoever the emotions belonged to she held great significance, there was a feeling of betrayal but also of love, there was a massive fight between the remaining white warriors and the female in black, then there was images of this cave of pain and finally of release.

Finally, the imagery stopped and Jack’s mind cleared, he slowly got to his feet and he wobbled unsteadily, as he leaned on the wall for support something caught his eye, there was a glint further into the cave and he moved towards it, every step felt like lead like he was wounded himself, he wondered if this was what the person whose emotions he’d just felt had felt when they’d crawled I here, then he found himself looking down at the body of a long dead Yaujta male, dressed all in white.

Heart hammering in his chest Jack stood frozen to the spot as he stared at the dead body of the male, somehow rather than becoming a skeleton it seemed to have mummified itself, it was a perfect match for the male he’d met who claimed to be Tik’s great grandfather, the armor, the cape the weapons right down to the scar on his left top mandible that Jack had noticed when he’d first seen him, but that meant that the male he’d met had been a…… no this wasn't possible, but yet here he was.  
Leaning down Jack looked at the male’s equipment, it was old but in near enough perfect condition, he wore twin golden looking wrist blades, there was a heavy looking dark metal sword about the size of a claymore from earth’s past, on his hip was one of those plasma caster’s that Tik used, but it had been turned into some sort of large caliber pistol with a twist grip, suddenly a voice boomed in his head, “Take it all and may it serve you well” it said causing him to jump, then he following it’s advice he picked up the plasma pistol and turned it over in his hands, the second that his hand closed around the massive grip the gun powered up and Yaujta lettering flowed down the top of it, it was almost like the gun was happy to have a new owner, then another two things caught his eye, there was a massive white ornate spear to the body’s left and next to it was some sort of launcher with a wide flat muzzle, so hooking the plasma pistol in his belt he picked them both up, as he gripped the spear it suddenly retracted into itself and became much easier to transport, the other thing looked like some sort of dart launcher with a collapsible stock on it, as he flicked out the stock a glowing holographic scope popped up on it and as he looked through it he was surprised by the level of zoom, that was when Jack decided what to do, he would honor this fallen warrior by taking his equipment and using it as the fallen warrior wanted, to protect the one he loved, so reciting verses from the soldiers prayer Jack began to slowly and carefully remove the weapons and armor from the body.

As he left the cave now weighed down with all these new but ancient weapons and armor he was still getting emotions that weren't his own flooding into his head, but the most definable one was a sense of profound happiness.  
As he began to walk back to the cave he noticed something of to his left, then he suddenly heard scurrying and he froze solid, crouching down he moved closer to the noise, there were a set of large bushes between him and the source of the noise, so slowly and deliberately he pushed into the bushes and peered through.

What greeted Jack was a small watering hole with what had to be about twenty of those lizards that Tik seemed to like lounging around it, he grinned at this, was it better to be good or lucky? Pulling his dagger out of its sheath he prepared to strike, he didn't want to have to waste ammunition on these guys as he got the feeling he was going to need every round when they finally squared against those bad bloods, so with a roar that Tik would have been proud of he launched himself into the area of the watering hole and began stabbing at the confused lizards before they had a chance to react.  
“Ten…Eleven…Twelve” Jack said to himself as he strung the dead lizards together, the damn things had been so startled by this knife wielding madman that had come screaming out of the bushes that they panicked and most of them had ended up wither trapping themselves in blind panic or running into each other. Jack finished stringing his catch together before he stood up and hoisted them onto his shoulder, he was being seriously weighed down by all the weapons armor and lizards he was carrying, it was going to be a slow trip home but a worthy one, he grinned as he thought about the strength these lizards were going to give him and he got the feeling he was going to need it for Tik’s reward, but then something caught his attention, a tree over to his right suddenly rustled for no reason. Turning to face it Jack frowned, there was no wind so there was no reason for it have moved like that, at first he thought it might have been one of the escaping lizards, that was until he saw a pair of very unnatural glowing eyes on a branch about halfway up, instantly he recognized those eyes, it was the fucker that shot him with the damn dart gun.

Slowly Jack moved to place his catch down, he didn't want to give the invisible hunter an inclination that he’d seen it, he couldn't use the new Yaujta weapons as they were secured to him as they wouldn't fall off and in the pack he’d taken from the body, so he slowly turned on the spot and placed the lizards down and began pretending to look around himself as if he was still searching for the noise source, then quick as a flash he turned and brought his M203 up into the shoulder and with a quick trigger pull sent a 40mm grenade right at the tree where the hunter was hidden.  
Just before the grenade exploded blowing the tree into matchsticks a large shimmer jumped from it into another tree, Jack instantly flicked the M203 into full auto and sprayed the canopy where he’d seen the shape go, the rifle ripped the canopy apart as it thrashed and kicked in his hands, “DIE MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!” Jack roared as he fired, then as the rifle clicked dry he turned and sprinted full tilt into the jungle, but not in the direction of the cave, given that he knew that they were hunting Tik there was no way in hell he was going to lead them to the woman he loved, so he headed off in the opposite direction as he tried to reload on the run.

As he ran he could hear branches snapping and the impacts of something very heavy jumping from branch to branch in the canopy, Jack knew that he had to alert Tik to the danger but he couldn't risk going near the cave as it would draw them straight to her, as he ran an idea occurred to him and he flicked the M203 onto its harness on his left, then with his right he reached over his shoulder and drew the AS50 around into his hands, then he stopped running and turned, he fired off five rounds in the direction of the latest moving branch and the massive gun tore the tree apart, but more than that the report of the massive rifle firing would have been heard from miles away, then Jack turned and ran again switching back to the M203 and trying to reload the grenade launcher, the smoking shell bounced off the ground with a metallic ping as he opened the chamber, he slapped another into it and clicked it shut just in time to see a second shape moving on him from his left, with a quick spin her turned and while still running drew a bead and opened up in a series of bursts at the shape, this time he didn't miss and spurts of bright green liquid sprayed from the shape as well as an ear splitting roar, “Catch this cunt!!” Jack said as he stopped just long enough to level the M203, the grenade hit the creature square in the chest and exploded with and ear splitting crack, it turned the creature into a cloud of green mist, unfortunately Jack didn't have time to celebrate his small win as he felt something impact into the back of his neck, his stop had been all the other bad blood had needed to draw a bead on him and hit him with a dart, reaching behind him Jack tore it from his neck, but it was too late as he felt his legs and arms turn to mush again, “Ahhh fuck” he said as he collapsed to the ground and again found himself staring up at a large black shape just before the world went black.

 

Tik eleth lay on their bed of furs, she was smiling at the ceiling day dreaming of what she was going to do to Ack when he undoubtedly returned from his victorious hunt, she purred at the thought of him submitting to her desires for him and a soft growl issued from her throat as she thought about running her hands over that hard ooman body of his. Suddenly a noise broke her nice day dream and Tik eleth sat up, it had sounded like a distant explosion of some kind, curiously she got up and quickly dressed herself in her coverings, then she went to the entrance to the cave and opened it. Outside she crouched on the ledge and listened carefully to the winds and noises of the jungle around her, then she heard something unmistakable, five loud booming cracks issued from somewhere off to her left and she turned, only one thing she’d ever heard made that noise, Ack’s rifle.  
Tik eleth charged back into the cave and grabbed her amour and her mask, these were swiftly followed by her weapons, there was no way Ack would need to use a weapon of that size to bring down shimmer lizards, if he had resorted to using that massive weapon he was in trouble, plus she also knew that he only ever used that thing at long distance and for him to fire it five times rapidly like that it was all wrong, that thing could be heard from just about anywhere in this jungle and she knew that as he knew that he knew that she knew that too, it had to be a signal of some kind, but all that she cared about was that he was in trouble and he needed her help.

Tik eleth charged through the jungle at top speed, she was using the thermal vision of her mask to try and locate any sign of her mate but so far it had turned up nothing, she was heading in the rough direction that his shots had come from, from up in the trees she had a good view but so far nothing had caught her eye, that was until she saw a rather large thermal bloom off to her right. Turning to look Tik spotted that the ground appeared to be littered with small thermal signatures all over the place but it was almost like a trail, she jumped down out of the tree and he leg twanged painfully as she landed but she ignored it, looking down one of the little thermal signatures was right at her feet so kneeling down she picked it up and inspected it, it was one of the shell casings that the new rifle Ack had found on one of the dead oomans, she clicked her mandibles thoughtfully at this, given the way they were trailing away from her he must have been firing on the run, quickly she followed the trail and it took her to a small watering hole, there she instantly found a string of twelve shimmer lizards strung together to be carried, she knew that this is where he’d started out, frustrated that she’d followed the trail in the wrong direction she turned and rapidly headed out the opposite way, when there was a rather large gap in the shell casing trail she was able to follow Ack’s heavy foot prints in the dirt of the ground, given how deep they were and the spacing indicated that he was being chased here, but given there was no damage to the trees around here she didn't know what by, well that was until she found what had caused the explosion she’d heard.  
Firstly, she found a large shell casing that looked like it had come from Ack’s grenade launcher, only a few feet away was a rather large thermal bloom that when she turned her thermal vision off to inspect it made her blood instantly run cold, it was Yaujta blood.

Sprinting over to it Tik eleth found a scene of devastation and also a leg. Tik eleth straight away knew that it was the bad bloods, they’d come back early after all, she also figured out that Ack had managed to hit one of the bad bloods with a grenade in the chest and the resulting explosion had torn him into a million pieces painting the trees and bushes around the area with a coating of glowing Yaujta blood, she couldn't help but smile at this knowing that her courageous mate had brought down one of his attackers in a rather spectacular fashion, but where was he? Resuming her tracking Tik eleth eventually found five much larger shell cases, this must have been where he’d fired the massive weapon to signal to her, that’s when she saw it and her heart instantly sank, dropping to her knees she picked up the small black dart and noticed ooman blood on the tip of it, “No…no….no….no….no…no…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” she roared to herself in utter heart wrenching despair as the reality sank in hard and fast, the bad bloods had captured her life mate.

After a few moments of self-pity and genuine fear the likes of which she’d never even imagined possible before, the anger kicked in. Standing up straight Tik eleth balled her massive fists so tightly that she snapped the metal dart in two in her hand, this was rage the likes of which she had never felt before, sure she’d been angry before, angry at her peers for rejecting her, angry at her parents for ignoring her, angry at her siblings for lording over her, angry at their whole stinking society for its stupid rules and regulations and blindness, but this, this was something completely different, this was the sort of rage that made every animal that was surrounding her watching her actions run if sheer terror including the six Calibri wolves that had been tracking her. She wasn't going to run from these bad bloods, they’d taken the one thing that meant more to her in this life than life itself, she was going to hunt the pauks down and make them pay for what they’d done, and so help her goddess if they’d hurt Ack, then the vengeance they would taste would be felt by their entire blood line, she would tear every single one them apart with her bare hands till there wasn't a shred of them big enough to identify, she was going to get her ooman life mate back if it meant she had to kill this entire planet to do it.

The rage fueled a determination, quickly scouting around the area she found two sets of tracks as well as some cut vines, obviously they tied Ack up and had taken him with them, for what purpose she didn't want to think about, but it couldn't have been anything good, maybe they’d seen them together and had taken him to get information on her, or maybe they were going to use him as bait to lure her out, this made her stop and think for a moment, this would be a rather effective plan to bring her to them, it was bad blood mentality to use living bait like that, but that’s what gave her an edge here, if she knew their tactics, then she could use them against them to her own advantage. Looking down she could see the stupid pauks had left tracks all along the ground as they’d carried Ack away, for the first time in a very long time Tik eleth engaged her optical camouflage and took to the trees, her body shimmered like a ghost in the trees, from up here she could easily follow the tracks of these bastards and with a small short prayer to the goddess to look after her taken love she began to move through the trees, this time it would be they who didn't see her coming.


	17. Love Hurts

The first thing Jack became aware of a was a strange metallic creaking noise, it sounded like a rusty hinge in the wind constantly creaking back and forth, the next thing was a heavy clanking noise like boots on a metal plate floor, well that was until the pain kicked in.  
As he opened his eyes his vision swam in and out of focus, he appeared to be in a room that was almost completely darkened except for two rather large spot lights that were aimed right at him, he tried to focus his eyes away from the lights instead looking at the areas around them but the lights blinded him to the point where all he could pick out were vague shapes, he also became of the fact that his hands were chained to the ceiling and he was stood upright.  
As soon as his eyes were open he heard a set of those footsteps head away from him before two sets returned, he heard voices but he couldn't pick out what was being said, but he did hear the word ‘ooman’ being said more than once.  
That was when one of the shapes in the room revealed themselves by stepping into the light, stood in front of Jack was a rather large Yaujta male, he had a rather large rippled head crescent with what almost looked like horns running off the sides of it, his face was covered by scars and from what Jack could see one of his eyes was totally white from a scar that ran through it, his skin was a grey yellow color with patches of blue running through it, to say he was ugly was an understatement and that was an observation Jack felt he was more than qualified to make given that she’d seen the pretty side of the species in Tik.  
The bad blood male had a verity of jewelry all over him in the form of rings on his dreadlocks as well as small skulls of a verity of animals hanging from his black armor, he stepped right up to Jack and leaned down to look into his face, he looks almost curious as he made an unusual clicking noise with his mandibles and moved his face from the left side of Jack’s face to the right, his green eyes never left Jack’s the entire time, “Ooman show no fear” he said in a rather deep voice, 

“I’m not scared of you fuckers, grossed out by that puke pile you call a face maybe but not scared” Jack said defiantly, the male made a rapid clicking noise before he stood up to his full eight-foot height and let out a mighty laugh, 

“Ooman has spirit” he said gesturing to the other forms in the room and Jack could hear various clicks from around the room, “Not for long” the male said in a genuinely menacing tone before he threw an almighty punch into Jack’s side which hit him so hard he actually left the ground and swung on his chains like a piñata. 

The pain burst through Jack like a wave from the point of impact and he was sure he heard at least one of his ribs go, the male slugged him then in the other side again swinging him up into the air, the third one hit him square in the face causing him to see star bursts of light in his vision, “Where is the Shadow Claw whore hiding?” the male asked and suddenly Jack got what this was about, they must have seen him and Tik together at some point and were now going to use him to find her, well they were going to have to kill him because there was no way he was going to give up the woman he loved.

“What Shadow Claw whore?” he asked in a raspy voice playing dumb, the male clicked his mandibles angrily, 

“The one who helped you kill the kiande amedha” he said in a low growl,

“Oh her? No idea said something about having to piss on the graves of something called bad bloods, haven’t seen her since” Jack said with a smile, with a roar of anger the male slammed his fist into Jack’s face so hard it snapped his head back and blurred his vision, this was followed up with about several other hard punches to various parts of Jack’s chest, the male got right into Jack’s face and was so close that he could feel the heat of his breath let alone smell the distinct aroma of rotten meat and sweaty socks, or at least that’s what it reminded Jack of, 

“Ooman will tell us eventually” he said in a rather calm tone, then he gestured to the shadows in the room and suddenly it was free for all time, the punches came from every direction sending bomb bursts of pain through Jack’s body, 

‘Just you wait fuckers, if Tik doesn't tear you in half I’m going to’ he thought silently as he gritted his teeth against the floods of pain, well that was until he blacked out

 

Tik eleth followed the tracks of the bad bloods through the jungle, she was moving a lot slower than she would have liked given the circumstances, but she had to be cautious and not give herself away, these bad bloods were sneaky and could literally be waiting anywhere along this trail for her to pop up, she knew that the only reason they’d have taken Ack was to get to her, they must have realized that there was a connection between them to what extent they knew however was unknown, now they were going to use him to draw her out, she felt a growl stir in her throat at the thought of what they were doing to her beloved, quickly she silenced it, there would be plenty of time for that later when she was tearing their heads of their pauking shoulders with her bare hands, the thought of her male in pain focused her mind and she started out again.

 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Jack roared as the sensation of the knife being drawn along his ribs kicked in, for the last hour they’d seemed to be sticking to the same tactic, they were cutting various parts of his body with some sort of knife that cut through his flesh like it was paper, then they would pour this acid like substance into the wound, it healed it leaving a massive scar behind but it felt like he was being set on fire each and every time, they’d also given him and injection of some sort of super stimulant that kept him from passing out from the pain, it constantly made his heart hammer in in his chest like having a jack hammer in his rib cage, these fuckers really knew their stuff. They’d also inserted what looked like really long broad needles into various parts of his body near to his nerve clusters, they gave constant electric shocks to run along the nerves that induced constant agony in all of his limbs, the big male bad blood walked in front of Jack with his hands clasped behind his back, his demeanor was calm, collected and confident, in his mind he knew that the ooman would break sooner or later, they’d been at this for hours and Jack felt like his mind was close to breaking, it was only the images of Tik happy and smiling that kept flashing through his mind that was keeping him together, there was no way he would ever betray the one he loved to the pauks, as he looked up at the room through pain clouded eyes he saw something strange, stood in the corner of the room to the rear were two shadows that he’d not seen here before, one he instantly recognized as Tik’s great grandfather, he was stood in his white and gold armor with his massive arms folded over his chest, he appeared to be looking at the bad bloods that surrounded him with utter contempt and disgust, but it was the other shadow that caught his eye more, because it was the first time that this one had appeared this clearly to him, stood there looking right at him was Sandy.

Jack looked at her in disbelief as she walked through the bad bloods like they weren't there just seeming to phase right through them, she walked right up to him and now she was so close he could see that she was dressed in the same fatigues that she’d been in on that fateful day in Afghanistan, she walked right up to him and slowly placed a hand to the side of his cheek, instantly there was a flash in his mind and he got a rush of feelings forced into his mind, the strongest two that fought through the jumble was a mixture of love and happiness. The love was aimed directly at him and the happiness was amazingly aimed at his current situation with Tik, she was actually happy that he’d found love again and that he’d made that incredible woman happy with his love for her, as the jumble cleared more feelings fought through and he felt how proud of him she was for being able to see past his misgivings of Tik being a totally different species and just seeing her as a beautiful sentient being in need of love and understanding and being the one to step up to the mark and give it to her, he also felt the fact that she was proud of him for not making the same mistake that he’d done with her by never telling her how he felt for her, now he desperately tried to show her in his mind how much he’d cared for her and loved her when she was alive, but the look in her eyes told him that she’d already known.

Then Sandy stepped to one side as the mighty warrior that was Tik’s great grandfather stepped up to him, now it was his turn and he did something that Jack never imagined possible, not that he’d ever imagined being able to see the ghosts of the restless dead as possible either but this nearly blew his mind to pieces, Tan sel eleth placed one of his huge mighty hands on Jack’s shoulder and he instantly heard the words ‘Gift of the blood’ fire through his head, then his head was filled with a rush of feelings so intense that at first he struggled to comprehend any of them, but then as he managed to tune his mind to them he realized to his utter shock what was happening as images started flashing into his head to accompany the feelings and he realized what happening, these weren't Tan’s feelings or Sandy’s, these were Tik’s!

Somehow being her ancestor Tan had managed to tap into Tik’s emotions and her feelings and was now showing them to Jack in their rawest form, Jack’s mind was struggling to comprehend them at first but as it managed to match them up with the corresponding imagery it began to make sense, he saw Tik’s early days back on her clanship, he felt the disappointment, the hate, the sadness and everything else that came with her constant rejections and humiliations, then he felt the loneliness and the constant struggle of being trapped on that planet all alone fighting off the bad bloods and the animals on her own all that time, he even felt how much Tik missed her mother and how much she’d wished to see her again, then he saw something that nearly broke him but in a good way, he felt what she felt when she’d met him, first he felt how impressed by his skills she was, that grew into confusion and self-loathing for finding him attractive in any way shape or form, this was followed by a gradual break down of her barriers and her questioning her own beliefs as she fell deeper and deeper for him, building up to the moment when she finally realized just how she felt for him and he even felt the moment when she gave up on her cultural identity as her love for him overpowered it.

That was the moment he felt the depths of Tik’s love for him and it rocked his mind as it exactly mirrored his own in its intensity and power, he felt it in its entirety, raw and unfiltered, he showed her happiness and sheer raw joy when he’d confessed his love to her and had claimed her as his mate, he showed him her pride and happiness as they’d held their own little wedding and he’d made the depth of his love for her known, Tan even took it to the extreme of showing him exactly what Tik felt when they were pleasuring each other and also when they were making love, he felt her raw pleasure, passion and an intensity of love that he’d never imagined outside of his own heart as he touched her and kissed her and made love to her, her feelings of being one with her soul mate overwhelmed his mind, the want to never let him go, the want to be one with him for the rest of time nearly brought tears to his eyes and these feelings perfectly mirrored his own, the feelings were so intense and powerful that his mind didn’t have time to be embarrassed by the fact that her great grandfather had effectively been watching them in their most intimate moments together as lovers. But then new imagery flooded his head and this time the emotions were those of hate, rage and pure intent and Jack realized these were her current emotions and he also realized that she was looking for him, he also felt her fear and that it was directed at him, she was scared for his wellbeing and was fully intent on recovering the one she loved safe and alive no matter the cost to herself.

As he realized that she was indeed coming for him he felt a rush of power and of his own rage that the pauks had forced his love to go through these feelings because of what they’d done to him, he felt a raw determination to avenge the fact that the bad bloods had made the woman he loved feel fear again, he was going to extract a price in blood from them for making her feel this way he swore it to himself, at that moment Tan stepped back from him and the connection was severed, he looked now into Jack’s eyes with his arms folded over his broad chest, he gave him a knowing smile and nodded his head knowing his work was done here, then to Jack’s amazement he turned and gestured to Sandy who actually acknowledged him! They could actually see each other? With a parting smile and a wave from Sandy both of them turned away and faded into the shadows of the room leaving Jack with a million questions but also a very real determination, these pauks would never break him and he was going to be reunited with the woman he loved, not only that he was going to use this to fulfill his promise to himself on her behalf, he was going to use this to get her off that cursed planet and was going to take her to a place where she would smile every day and live her life in the happiness and love that she deserved, this he swore on his own immortal soul.

With a gesture from the large male’s hand the others stopped cutting Jack whose head was now hanging limply on his chest, he could still feel everything they’d done to him while he was locked into Tan’s imagery being unable to pass out because of the cocktail of stims they’d given him, slowly he raised his head and the male was surprised by the dark look of pure determination now in his eyes, “Strange ooman, why do you resist? If this female is nothing to you then why go through all this pain? Maybe she is more to you?” he said, then he tapped a few buttons on his wrist computer and an image sprung up on a large screen to the right of the lights that up until now Jack had not known was even there. On the screen was a large image of him and Tik hugging after beating the bugs, then the male tapped the computer again and the image changed to one of him tending to her wounds, “I think this female is more to you ooman, a friend, or a mate maybe?” he said, Jack said nothing just looked at the pictures with his teeth clenched, 

“It appears that life on our world has warped this female, she has forgotten what it’s like to know a real Yaujta male, she disgraces herself by lowering herself to cavorting with your kind, the disgrace of lowing yourself to mating with prey, but don’t worry ooman, when we catch her and we will catch her, I’ll personally remind her who she really is and I’ll even let you watch as I force her to submit to me, I’ll even let her watch you” he said in a sneer, this pushed the right buttons in Jack as the mental images of Tik being forced by the male swam through his head, instantly his rage flashed like a bomb going off in his head, 

“If you so much as look at her I’ll tear your throat out with my teeth” Jack hissed through teeth gritted through the pain, 

“What ooman say?” he said not hearing, an idea occurred to Jack and he began to whisper nonsense to himself, the male came closer and bent down to get his face next to Jack’s so he could hear him, instantly Jack lunged up and sank his teeth into the side of the males face.  
The male tore backwards which turned out to be very much the wrong move as Jack clamped his teeth down and took a sizable chunk out of the skin around his mandible taking it down all the way to the bone. The male howled in pain as Jack spat the terrible tasting foul skin to the floor in a glowing green glob, instantly the others in the room laid into Jack punching him full force in every part of his body and all he could do was grin darkly through the melee at the wounded male who was now looking right into his eyes, oddly the male returned his smile even with his wounded mandible before leaving the room.

 

Tik eleth moved through the trees still following the tracks for miles through the jungle, her fear of what was happening to Ack drove her like a rocket booster, she had to keep slowing herself down and remembering that the only way she could help him is if she reached him alive and unnoticed. The tracks eventually led her to the lip of a rather large tree filled crater that rested at the foot of a small mountain, it was obviously where an asteroid had struck millions of years ago. Using her height in the trees above the crater she was able to get a good look down into it, that’s when she saw there were two small drop ships hidden in the foliage and cloaked, in fact had it not been for the hunting mask she wouldn't have seen them at all, then she noticed something strange, it was what looked like a space in the trees where something much bigger had been, this had to be one of the transport ships that came in to drop of new specimens for them to hunt, but why had it landed? That’s when it hit her, Ack was no longer on this planet, he was on the pauking clan ship in orbit.  
This news rocked Tik eleth to her core, but it made perfect sense they would have wanted to keep him in a place where there was little or no chance of escape, plus in a place like that they would have specialized interrogation rooms where they could attempt to break him and get him to talk, she knew that they would be using him to extract information about her, of all the things on this planet she was their true prize and she knew that they wouldn't rest until they either killed her or forced her to submit, rage started to burn inside her again, finally she had someone to call her own, finally she had someone who cared for her and who she cared for, someone who treated her right and with respect and honor, someone who loved her unreservedly and without cost or price, someone who was not scared to be seen with her or to associate with her, someone who had changed her very outlook on life and had won her heart and her very soul and they’d taken him from her. Suddenly all the years of pain, of suffering, of being ignored and passed over for ‘superior’ females, of having to be the best at everything to even be considered ‘worthy’ in the eyes of people that didn't seem to care whether she lived or died, finally, pauking finally she found someone who understands her, who cares for her, who loves her and whom she loves and adores and they pauking took him from her. Her blood began to boil as the thoughts of what they were doing to her life mate up there swam through her head, she was going to make them pay in blood for every wound they caused her love, no-one hurts the male she loves and lives to tell the tale, no-one, with the sheer rage boiling in her blood Tik eleth started off down into the crater.

A fist slammed into the side of Jack’s face hard enough to cause his whole head to ring like a bell, he tried to life his head to look at the big bad blood who’d thrown the punch but his vision was all blurred in his left eye, his right was completely swollen shut from the beating he’d been taking from them, it had gone on for what felt like hours, they’d stabbed him, burned him, electrocuted him, covered his skin in some sort of green slime that made his skin feel like it was on fire and still he refused to tell them a single thing about Tik, in fact at this point it was only the thought of seeing her again that was keeping him sane. He grinned through split lips and blood stained teeth at the bad blood male as he spat blood at him, there was only one in here with him now, the others had obviously gotten bored and had headed out for some rest, but this new male seemed younger than all the rest he’d seen so far, he wondered if he like most young men would have something to prove, “That all you got dickless? if so it’s no wonder you can’t get a female of your own” Jack said with a slight laugh, the male roared and flared his mandibles at him obviously enraged, 

“Makes you feel big and hard does it? I mean you must get such a rush hitting a prisoner who can fight back, is this what you and your buddies do for kicks eh? Slap me about a bit then go and suck each other off while you gloat about how many punches you landed on the ooman who can’t move?” he said, the male started clicking his mandibles as his anger grew in intensity, it was working, Jack had an idea that due to the male’s inexperience and age he’d be able to use his pride to goad him into doing something stupid,

“I mean I was told you bad bloods were honorless but I didn't think you were cowardly as well, but I guess that clears up the question of why there are no females here, I mean what female would been seen dead with you cowards?” he said with his voice now filling with venom, the bad blood male was now pacing around the room as he clicked his mandibles in fury at the oomans words, “I tell you what, I’ll give you the chance to gain some honor here, who knows it might even get you a date, let me down and let’s make this a proper fight I mean what sort of sport is there in hitting an opponent who can’t move?” Jack said looking at the male, his mandibles clicked rapidly as he seemed to be thinking about this, then much to Jack’s surprise the male stepped forwards and released the chains holding him, he landed on his face on the floor with a thud that knocked the wind out of him.  
Slowly he got to his feet swaying about due to the beating his body had taken over the past few hours, his balance was shot not to mention his depth perception as he could only use one eye, he rubbed his wrists from where the cuffs that held them had bitten into them, the male stood opposite him and he flicked his wrist causing his wrist blades to shoot out, Jack laughed, “Either give me some of those or put them away you coward, what honor is there in fighting an unarmed opponent with weapons” he said panting from having the wind knocked out of him, much to his sheer shock the male actually turned and pulled something from the wall and threw it to him, it looked like a rather odd shaped staff with two razor sharp edges on it, as he picked it up the thing extended to three times its original size, looking at the snarling male who was now circling him, 

“I show you who dickless ooman” the male growled menacingly, 

“Well then dickless shall we dance?” Jack said and with the power of the super stimulant mixed with adrenaline and rage coursing through his veins temporarily granting him super human strength and speed he launched himself at the surprised male.

It took Tik eleth over an hour to reach the bottom of the crater as she was having to move painfully slow, if the bad bloods were down here with their drop ships she had to catch them unawares, normally she’d have figured that there would have been two left after Ack had blown one of them to pieces, but that drop ship that had been here complicated things, it could have left additional bad bloods here while they took Ack to the clan ship, scanning the scene from the cover of the trees she had her suspicions confirmed, although they were cloaked her mask picked the out against the background, she was able to pick out four of them patrolling around the two drop ships, zooming in on them revealed more, these were young bloods, unblooded hunters according to the lack of marks on their armor, a question now plagued her, were the ships on the ground theirs or were they simply there to guard them?, no matter either way she was going to take one by force and would happily kill all of them to get it.


	18. Love's Fury

Jack’s burst of sudden speed caught the bad blood totally off guard and he had to block rapidly to stop him bringing the staff down on his skull, the contact between the staff blades and his wrist blades sent sparks flying in all directions as with a scrape they glanced off each other, he tried to duck under it and stab at the ooman’s exposed chest, but to his surprise the ooman twisted out of the way at the last second and spinning on the spot he swung the staff low catching the male in the back of the leg, he roared in pain as the blades sliced through his flesh sending a spray of green blood across the room, with a quick flourish Jack managed to gain a second smaller hit on the same leg to the back of the male’s knee hooking it, the male landed with a huge thud on his back as his leg was pulled from under him, but he was able to roll out of the way of his downwards thrust and the staff blades hit the floor plates with a loud metallic clang that boomed and echoed, he rapidly turned and got back to his feet and looked with wide eyes at the ooman who was stood side on to him with the staff lowered at his side, the first thing was the burning blue eye that he was looking at him with, they were filled with a mixture of what looked like pure rage and hate, the male charged him and he twisted out of the way, but he was able to reach out and grab the oomans shoulder to stop him moving, but before he had chance to follow the move up the ooman gripped his wrist like lightening and twisted it sharply rotating his arm outward causing him to bend forwards with the momentum of the twist, then with his other hand the ooman struck him hard directly to the elbow which made a sickening pop and crunch as it was disintegrated by the devastating blow, he roared in pain as he cradled his now useless arm, then with unbelievable speed the ooman rushed him and swung the staff like a mad man, it was all he could do to deflect the flurry of blows the ooman unleashed on him with his staff with his one good arm, but unfortunately he wasn't quick enough because while he was watching the staff he didn't see the kick coming, the ooman booted him full force in his malehood and a star-burst of pain blinded him for a second and caused him to double over, but it wasn't the kick that was the problem, it was that he followed it up with a strike from the staff tip to the same place.  
Jets of glowing green blood sprayed from the bad bloods crotch as he looked down in total horror, this weak pathetic ooman had managed to use the staff to cut his malehood clean off, he looked up at the ooman who was grinning at him with a face of pure hate and for the first time in his life the male felt true fear, it was also the last thing he felt in his life as the next thing the ooman did was plunge the staff straight through his chest, then he heard the oomans voice, “Now you’re both dickless and heartless” he said with a voice void of any mercy or pity and that was when the world went black.

 

“Do you think that when they break that pauking ooman and he finally tells us where the pauking Shadow Claw bitch is hiding that they’ll let us take turns with her?” one of the young bloods guarding the drop ships said to a second,   
“No chance, the elder is going to want that bitch all to himself” the second said,

“Pity I wouldn't mind having a go with that bitch even if she is a pauking dwarf” the first said and both of them laughed as they turned to continue their patrol, as he reached the rear of the drop ship they’d come down in something came out of the shadows at him, before he even had chance to react something rather strong grabbed his head and twisted it sharply, he felt his neck pop and all of his limbs go completely numb, then he was laid down on his back rather gently, he tried desperately to move but none of his limbs responded to any of his commands and he could feel panic rising in his throat like bitter bile, then a shape loomed over him and fear flooded his mind as the Shadow Claw bitch knelt down over him.  
Tik eleth opened the now paralyzed young blood’s wrist computer and checked it, sure enough it was linked to his life signs, if she’d killed him it would have triggered a self-destruct that would have taken out everything in this crater, quickly she reprogrammed it and terminated its link from his heartbeat, then quickly she removed it and strapped it to her own left arm along with his wrist blades, he also had an additional plasma caster mounted on his shoulder which she took from him and strapped it to her left shoulder, now she had two of them and she quickly tested the modified targeting to make sure her mask was compatible with it and could handle dual targets, unfortunately with the damage it had suffered it wouldn't work, so she unclipped it from her face and threw it down, then without any pity she tore the pretty new mask from the helpless young blood’s face and clipped it to her own, as he was paralyzed he was unable to speak right now but the look of fear in his eyes told her exactly how he was feeling, the new mask fired up and instantly picked up the second plasma caster now mounted on her shoulder, then she extended her new wrist blades and without a second thought stabbed the young blood through the heart ending his pitiful honorless life, one down three to go.

 

The corridors of this place were rather large obviously to accommodate the size of the Yaujta who walked its halls, fortunately this gave Jack plenty of places to hide as he ducked and weaved between doorways trying to stay out of sight. His body was total agony as he moved but he knew that he had to fight through it, he couldn't let them catch him as he didn't think they’d be so forgiving of him killing one of their own and stealing his stuff, speaking of which he looked own at his shiny new wrist blades, he’d seen Tik use these things to amazing effect, somehow he didn't think he would be so graceful with them but if he could get the drop on one he could still stab the fucker in the balls with them, but what he wouldn't give for some human weapons right about now, he ducked into a doorway as four of the large males walked passed speaking in Yaujta, then slowly he moved down a long corridor with no idea if he was even headed in the right direction but for some reason he kept feeling in his heart that this was the right way to go, as he reached the end he was presented with a T junction and both choices were equally confusing, but then a voice spoke in his head softly, “Turn left” it said, and he turned his head to look, but there was no one there, then something to his left drew his attention, about quarter of the way down the corridor was an open doorway with some rather strange noises coming from it, silently he approached the door and he peaked around it, what he saw made his jaw drop open, the walls were totally covered in skulls hundreds of them in all different shapes and sizes, there was everything from wolves to kiande amedha skulls and one absolutely massive one with a huge hole through the side of it which he recognized as a queen, it was at that point he realized that the hole through the side matched exactly where he’d shot the queen he and his beloved Tik had fought, then it hit him, it was the same fucking one! These bastards were trying to claim glory for their victory! 

For some reason this stolen glory made Jack’s blood boil, he wasn't usually bothered by someone else trying to take credit for his victories, it had been a staple of his Military life, commanders and officers taking credit for the hard work and blood spilled of their brave soldiers to whom the victory and honor truly belonged, as a solider all he ever cared about was that he got the job done and that he and his brothers and sisters in arms made it back alive and in one piece, it was all most soldiers ever hoped for. 

But this, this was different, the woman he loved had nearly lost her life to defeat this thing, it had spilled her blood and she had fought with all her heart and soul to defeat it, that victory and honor belonged to her and not them! “No-one steals from the one I love” he hissed to himself in a silent voice of pure hate.

In the middle of the room was a Yaujta male, he was sat with his back to the doorway holding some sort of tool, he was using it to strip the flesh from the skull of what looked like one of those Calibri wolves that he and Tik had fought, it sort of reminded him of the trophies that Tik had on her wall in the cave, he was about to move on when something else caught his eye, on the left wall was a collection of what appeared to be weapons, these could come in handy, but then something else caught his eye, it was the white and gold armor that he’d retrieved from Tan’s final resting place as well as his weapons, the bad blood turned from his work and looked at the armor before moving over to it, he looked at it curiously before placing a hand on the shiny breast plate only to be immediately electrocuted, a voice boomed in Jack’s head in a Yaujta, “You are not worthy honorless one, only one of honor may use my gifts!!” it boomed, Jack was surprised that somehow he was able to understand what it said, the large male danced around shouting at the armor waving his hand around in pain, it didn't take a genius to understand that the words coming out of his mouth right now were rather unpleasant, then with a couple of hand gestures to the armor he turned and returned to his task with his curiously effectively repressed, silently entering the room Jack moved like a ghost up behind the distracted bad blood who still seemed to be cursing to himself and quick as a flash he plunged his shiny new wrist blades through his back with all his strength while at the same time jamming his hand over his mandibles to silence his death roar.

 

Tik eleth watched the last two remaining bad bloods as they walked back and forth on the far side of the ships from her perch on top of one of them, the second male had fallen rather easily when she'd used her wrist blades to sever his spinal column between his shoulder blades, with his wrist computer turned off she'd dragged his body into the clearing and left it where the two others could see it, then she'd clambered up on top of the nearest drop ship and now lay in wait.  
One of the bad bloods spotted the body of his fallen brother and instantly called to the other, both of them approached the body cautiously, the one who'd spotted it turned it over slowly checking under as he did, with no sign of a trap he quickly flipped it over, he and his clan brother both reached out to check the body but as they did one had his left forearm blown off the other the right arm, both of them recoiled in pain roaring as the burning agony hit them, but fortunately for them it didn't last long as Tik eleth's second volley hit them both square in their faces turning their heads into green mist. Dropping down from the ship Tik eleth gave a roar of victory as she looked at the smoldering bodies of the two fallen bad bloods, then she turned and headed for the first drop ship.

 

Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing on the weapon wall, rather a lot of them where human but they weren't modern, there were African spears, ancient Japanese Katana swords, a couple of what looked like flint lock rifles and pistols, even an ancient roman short sword. They had all been preserved and maintained very well, running his hands over the ancient human weapons Jack couldn't help but wonder just how long this clan had been hunting here or how many of his kind they'd killed in the name of sport, as he was looking over the weapons he noticed something rather much more modern and he smiled all be it painfully with the split lips, there on a rack of its own was his AS50.  
Deciding that he could use quite a bit of this stuff Jack took down his AS50 and retrieved its ammo from nearby, the next thing he took was the Japanese Katana as it still looked as razor sharp as the day it was forged, then an idea came to him as he put the weapons down on the desk in front of the dead Yaujta, then Jack’s attention was drawn to the white and gold armor, an idea began to form in his head and before he knew what he was doing he’d reached out and placed a hand on the chest piece of the armor, the same voice as before boomed in his head, “Your heart is worthy warrior, take these gifts and bring honor to your clan and yourself, fight hard and die well” it said, Jack shook his head in surprise but then he smiled, 

“Thanks” he said and then he picked up all the pieces and began to figure them out.

The armor proved to be rather comfortable and very light considering its size, but it was rather loose fitting but with some inventive use of some of the skins the male had removed Jack managed to improve the fit, the last thing he took and modified with some cordage and one of the skins turned inside out to make a hat was the bright gold and white hunting mask that Tan sel eleth himself had used all those years ago, the wrist blade that Jack was wearing was majorly inferior to the one that Tan had used so he’d replaced it with Tan’s twin golden wrist blades, these things were huge like having a retractable Katana strapped to each arm, but for some reason they were rather comfortable and easy to wield. They hooked up with the mask and instantly he had access to a whole host of different visual spectrum's and to boot both the plasma casters that he’d retrieved from the dead bad blood and had strapped to his own shoulders powered up, they stood up from their mountings following his head motions, he quickly strapped the rest of Tan’s weapons to him at various points as well, now he caught sight of himself reflected in one of the mirrors that the bad blood had been using for skinning, dressed in the white armor with the huge white cape flowing behind him he looked like some sort of knight out of one of Earth’s medieval times but with a modern and Yaujta twist. As he was looking at himself he suddenly felt something behind him and as he turned his head he saw Tan sel eleth standing in the corner of the room smiling at him broadly, then he balled his fist and struck his chest before giving a slight bow to Jack, who instantly recognized the Yaujta honored greeting and returned it, “Use my gifts and fight with honor and make your enemies die well Ack” he said, 

“I will Tan sel eleth, these pauking cowards are not going to stop me getting back to where I belong, right into the arms of the woman I love! And I swear it on the honor of my immortal soul if they have so much as hurt her feelings I’ll make them drown in their own blood” Jack replied, Tan sel eleth smiled broadly, 

“A pure Yaujta heart in a ooman body” Tan sel eleth said, this caused Jack to smile, then Tan walked across the room to the ooman now dressed in his majestic white battle armor with it cape flowing behind him and stopped right in front of Jack, “There is one more gift that I must bestow upon you before I go and it’s something you have tasted a little of already, but with this you’ll know your true power” he said, this caused Jack to cock his head curiously, Tan reached out and placed his hand on Jacks shoulder plates, “It’s time to awake Dream Warrior” he said and as he did what felt like a bomb went off in Jack’s head causing him to go ridged as a statue, his head was filled with thoughts and voices and feelings from all around him, it was like being dropped into a stadium of people all talking at once, he tried desperately to block them out or to at least organize his thoughts into something cognitive, but then as quickly as it came it went away again, it was at that point as his head was clearing he realized that he could actually feel Tan’s touch on him.   
The large Yaujta warrior stepped back from him and smiled down at him, “You are awakened now Dream warrior, not only will you see into the hearts of those around you and know the intentions of others before they themselves know them, you will also have the power to see the auras of every living being you encounter so you’ll know their allegiance and their true heart at a simple glance, the lighter the color that surrounds them the purer their heart, the darker it is the further they have fallen and the more pain and honorless death they have caused, also now you’ll be able to seek the guidance and aid of the honored fallen, whereas before they would come to you only when they felt you needed them, now you can call them to your aid and they will come, honor their memory and their sacrifice and more powerful allies you’ll never have, now go young ooman and find my great granddaughter and honor your promise to her, I will be watching to make sure you do” he said, Jack slammed his fist against his chest and bowed to the massive warrior, 

“You have my word of honor Tan sel eleth none shall hurt her while I still live” he said, Tan clicked his mandibles happily and smiled before turning and fading into the shadows, inside the mask Jack smiled, he picked up both Tan’s shining white staff spear and also as he did he noticed his arm was shining, as he looked at it he saw a pure white fire burning around it and he looked down at himself and saw that he was surrounded by it on all sides, it flowed, rippled and washed all over him like white liquid fire, he smiled as Tan’s words about the purity of heart entered his head again, then he took his AS50 and strapped it onto his back, it was time for some payback ooman Dream Warrior style, but first there was something he had to do, he climbed up onto the desk facing the queen’s skull and extended one of the wrist blades, then he began to carve. After he was finished he dropped down and grinned at his work, right in the center of the skull was a huge heart shape, inside it were the words, ‘Property of the full blooded huntress Tik Eleth Mason’ it read, he had thought about smashing the skull but that would have dishonored their accomplishment and it was too big to take with him, or to even carry really, so this act of reclaiming his mate’s honor was the best he could do, with that he he turned and headed out.

 

After trashing the controls and booby trapping one of the drop ships Tik eleth settled herself into the pilot seat of the second one, it was a much older model than she was used to and was probably stolen from some unfortunate clan that had been unlucky enough to run across the bad bloods, but to her it was salvation all the same.   
Pressing various buttons to get the ship to power up it felt like eons since she’d been behind the controls of one of these, they were small and not built for comfort only really used to ferry one or two hunters from a clan ship or transport vessel to a battlefield or hunting ground, but despite their size they like most Yaujta technology was built not only to last but with multipurpose in mind, even though this was a drop ship she could technically use it to travel across the galaxy due to its high speed drive and stasis bunks, it was also equipped with a hydrogen fuel scoop so that it could be replenished by taking it close to a star and catching the hydrogen that was blown off.  
But right now Tik eleth could care less about any of that, right now this ship was her means to get off this planet and back to where she belonged, into the arms of her loving mate, so she fired up the engines and with an expertise born from countless combat and hunting drops piloted the small ship out of the valley, on route she engaged the ships full stealth systems, she did not want the clan ship to see her coming till it was too late.

As the small ship burst free of the atmosphere Tik eleth took a look down at the planet she’d called home for the last four seasons, for some reason mixed in with the joy of the freedom she felt a pang of sadness, despite being trapped there against her will and despite being forced to hunt and forage to survive, this was a place where she had truly discovered herself on a primal level, here she had truly realized what it meant to be Yaujta, it was also the place where she had discovered the true meaning of love.

The clan ship was huge, it reminded her of her own clan ship but it was far far larger than it, some of the Yaujta clans chose a nomadic lifestyle never living I one place for long and moving around a lot, this was as it was explained to her, to preserve the natural balance of the galaxy and to preserve the hunt, if Yaujta stayed in one place for too long they tended to extinct prey species rather quickly, so to make sure that there was always strong and worthy prey to hunt, a few of the clans had chosen this so that not only would they have the honor of finding and killing new prey, but the ones already hunted would have chance to repopulate and would be there to hunt in the future. 

But this ship was on a whole new level, it was at least five or six times the size of her own clan ship which made her think about the odds of finding Ack on something that size, she shook her head quickly to clear such thoughts and to steel her determination, she was going to find him, she had faith that her heart would lead her to him and she was going to save him from those pauks, she had to.

So scanning over the ship she found some entry points that would be viable, she didn't want to go in through the main hanger bays as she’d be instantly spotted and shot out of the sky by the gunner teams inside, but the cargo hangers would be far less secure and easier to infiltrate and as luck would have it she could actually see a cargo vessel lining up to enter the dock, so quickly she adjusted course and lined herself up directly below it using its thruster exhausts to mask herself completely from view, as the big ship entered into the cargo dock she went with it hiding in its shadow.  
The cargo hanger was a massive collection of suspended metal docking berths and mini storage warehouses dotted all over the place, as the big ship glided into a berth Tik eleth piloted her little ship to hide under one of the platforms that housed a warehouse, she used the ships magnetic clamps to lock onto the underside of it and powered it’s engines down, she quickly made sure her hunting mask was in breather mode so that she wouldn't suffocate the second she opened the hatch and then she checked her weapons, everything was in place and ready to go when she was, so with a last look at the ship’s sensors which told her the cargo hanger was nearly deserted she headed to the hatch and opened it.

The climb from the ship onto the gantries was a little tricky but she’d had worse, using her claws to gain purchase on the rough metal Tik eleth scaled up from the ship and onto one of the gantries, there were various crates of all different sizes strewn about all over the gantries, she hissed at the sheer lack of discipline these pauks possessed, taking cover behind one particularly large crate she quickly checked the map of the ship that she’d downloaded from the drop ship’s computer to her wrist comp before landing, there appeared to be a series of holding cells for various captured hunt specimens in the center of the ship and this is where she got the feeling they’d be holding her beloved Ack, so before shutting off the comp she planned out her route to keep her out of sight, she didn't want to start a fight before she had Ack back in her arms where he belonged, once she had him back then they could tear this place up together as the warrior lovers that they were, she didn't care if she died in combat fighting by his side as that was her destiny, but not apart from him that fate was to cruel to comprehend, she wanted the last thing she saw in this life to be his beautiful face and the love in his eyes and nothing would keep her from the honor of that, so shutting of the comp she drew her wrist blades out and began to move stealthily through the cargo bay, darting from cover to cover all the time being careful to keep an eye on the few bad bloods that were down here working, it was slow going but eventually she made it out of the massive cargo bay and into the ships corridors, now the real hunt for her lost love would truly begin.


	19. Two Halves of the Same Heart

Chapter 19: Two Halves of the Same Heart.

Moving through the massive halls Jack was hugging the walls and doorways which isn't easy when you’re wearing bright white armor with a flowing cape, although now his job had become a fair bit easier, as while he’d been playing with the wrist comp he’d lifted from the bad blood to try and figure out what else he could use it for he’d accidentally triggered some sort of optical camouflage, it had shit him right up when suddenly while pressing buttons his skin had begun crackling with electricity before becoming pretty much see through.

Just before that he’d also figured out how the plasma cannons worked much to the misfortune of a bad blood who just happened to stumble across him hiding, as he’d turned to face him both of the cannons had targeted him as he ran towards Jack, turned out all he had to do was focus on the triangle target acquired icon that popped up in his HUD and the cannons responded by firing at the target, boy the damn things packed a serious punch to a point that was proven by the fact that after taking two close range full power hits only the legs of the bad blood male continued to run down the corridor as his torso was blown into glowing goo all over the walls.

After this bit of impromptu bit of redecorating Jack had decided that it might be a good idea to get the fuck out of Dodge and had headed out down corridor passing the still running legs as he went, he had absolutely no idea where he was or where he was going, but anywhere was better than staying still and waiting for them to find him.

As he reached the end of the corridor it suddenly became blatantly obvious to Jack just where he was and his heart sank like a fucking lead balloon, the corridor he was in swung ninety degrees to the left, but on the right was a window and as Jack stopped at it with the hope of orientating himself all he saw was an orbital view of a planet that he didn't recognize.  
“I’m in fucking space!” he exclaimed to himself as he looked down at the massive blue orb through the window, as he stared at the land masses of the blue orb his thoughts turned to Tik, his love was trapped down there somewhere with no way to get to him, but maybe there would be a way for him to reach her, if he could steal a ship or something from here then maybe just maybe if he didn't end up flying it into the fucking sun he could reach her and rescue her from that god forsaken hell, a mental image of himself in knights get up on his trusty steed sweeping in to rescue princess Tik swam into his mind and he smiled under the mask, though more likely ‘princess’ Tik would throw him over one of those broad shoulders of hers and carry him off to her tower and his trusty steed would be an alien space ship that he had absolutely no clue on how to fly, but it still kept his spirits up, “I will find you my love, count on it” he said placing an armored hand against the glass, suddenly a series of loud claxons sounded bursting his lovely bubble, “Looks like the fuckers have noticed I’m gone, time to be more gone” he said to himself before turning and running full tilt down the corridor to god knows where.

 

Tik eleth flourished her sword and with a single strike took the bad blood’s head clean from his shoulders, before dropping into a roll and with her now twin wrist blades stabbed his two friends in their stomachs before wrenching upwards spilling their guts all over the floor, flicking the blades she advanced on the fourth one who was now retreating away from the angry female bearing down on him, so terrified of her was he that he didn't notice that his back was about to hit a wall till it was too late. Tik eleth slammed a massive foot into his stomach bouncing him back against the wall his skull making a sickening crack as it hit, then she slammed both sets of wrist blades into his shoulders crippling his arms and pinned him to the wall, even though he was taller than her he looked terrified of the female, “You have something that belongs to me, tell me where you have taken the ooman called Ack and I will grant you a quick honorable death” she said in a voice of pure venom, his eyes widened in pure fear and she was sure he was about to piss himself,

“I don’t know, the elder locked him up to interrogate him, that’s all I know I swear it by the goddess” he said, Tik eleth twisted the wrist blades and the male howled in agony,

“You are lying bad blood, WHERE IS MY MALE!!!!!?” she roared in his face so loud it caused him to actually whimper, then suddenly claxons sounded and she looked up at the ceiling where red pulsing lights were spinning, they couldn't have discovered her already surely? Quickly she withdrew one of her wrist blades and slit the males throat while still looking at the ceiling, as his body slumped against the wall she heard a voice come over the ship’s internal communication system, “Brothers and sisters an ooman that is the personal property off the Elder has escaped, he had killed our brothers and is to be hunted down, but not and I repeat this NOT killed, that honor belongs to the Elder, if he is found dead the one responsible will join his corpse on its trip out of an airlock!!” the voice said with authority.

Tik eleth’s heart did back flips of joy in her chest, her Ack was free and he was fighting, she had to get to his side as quickly as possible, but where was he and where would he go? Quickly she drew up her map and traced her route to what she believed to be the holding cells where they would have held him, best to start there and hunt him down, so putting the map out she charged down the corridor with her plasma cannons now primed, stealth no longer mattered to her, only reaching her beloved Ack mattered.

 

“FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!!!” Jack roared as he ran down a corridor as a hail of those nasty knock darts pinged off just about every surface including the armor he was now very glad he was wearing, as it turned out the hunting masks could see through their own cloaking tech and a few of their smarter hunters had tried this just in case and had hit pay dirt as he’d tried to sneak by, just before he reached the end of the corridor he span and sent a few shots of his own from his twin plasma casters at his pursers, three of the eight chasing him were instantly turned into goo and the others dove for cover before returning fire, he kept going this time not looking back as he reached the end of the corridor it turned right and there in front of him were two bad bloods, one was about seven foot but the other was about fucking nine foot tall, he aimed and fired on instinct, both dropped with neat holes blown through them, he hurdled over the larger one as he ran and he could have sworn that he saw breasts on its chest as he did, but he didn't have time to check as more of those darts started pinging off everything again, suddenly he found himself rather glad that Tik wasn't that big or their love life would have certainly been a fair bit trickier, much to his own surprise he found himself laughing at this as he ran full tilt away from the rampaging bad bloods behind him, just before he turned and released another volley of shots at the pursing bad bloods, this time he scored another two hits leaving three still in pursuit, then he turned and ran out of the corridor into a huge room that was spanned with metal catwalks heading off in every direction, “Oh shit which way?” he breathed, suddenly there was a flash in his mind and his vision went fuzzy for a moment, then a white smoke like trail went off to the right so he figured this had to be something to do with his Dream Warrior abilities, so he followed it and ran onto the ramp leading over to a door on the far side of the room, as he was running the bad bloods came into the room and started firing at him, darts pinged off the floor, the hand rails, his armor and just about everything else, it was nothing short of a miracle that none of them found his flesh and he thanked Tan sel eleth for the high quality of the armor he’d given him, he turned when he was halfway over and sent a volley of shots down the ramp, he scored three hits but now he saw that his pursuers had been joined by about fifteen others, he’d just turned back to continue his run when a figure burst out of the door ahead of him and instantly Jack locked his cannons on to the running figure just as he did the same to him, or rather she did, there was something very different with this one, while every bad blood he’d encountered all had dark auras ranging from reds to browns to blacks depending on how far the path they were, this one’s aura was a pure white.

 

Tik eleth charged towards her goal, this massive ship was really testing her endurance as she felt like she’d been running for miles, but she was getting close to her goal she knew it, she burst out of a door and onto one of the catwalks that spanned the ships huge living sections, as she did she saw a bad blood running towards her with his twin plasma cannons at the ready, she locked onto him and was just about to fire when she noticed something odd that stopped her, this bad blood was rather short but he was rather heavily armed, carrying a verity of blades and what even appeared to be an ooman sword on his back, he was also dressed in completely white armor and mask that reminded her of pictures of the ancient Yaujta that he matriarch had told her stories of when she was a cub, these elite Yaujta warriors would dress in full white and gold armor and were beings of pure honor, if one of these bad bloods were wearing this amour then it was stolen which made her blood boil that one would be so audacious to wear the armor of a being of pure honor while being honorless, then as she looked harder she noticed something that nearly blew her eyes out of her mask, there just on his shoulder behind his plasma caster was Ack’s projectile weapon.  
Darts started pinging off the platform around him and also off his armor, he turned and using one of the plasma casters he fired of a few shots at another group at the base of the ramp which confused her but then reality hit her like a punch, as he turned she caught sight of his arm and she saw ooman skin!!

 

Much to his surprise has he turned and hit the pursing bad bloods with another volley an second set of shots sailed around him and took out various others, he didn't know why the bad blood behind him on the bridge was helping him but he was glad she was, maybe she wanted out of this place and he couldn't say he could blame her, he fired off another set of shots and the last of the pursuing bad bloods fell in a heap at the end of the bridge, this would but him some time at least, he turned back to greet his new friend and was instantly picked up off the ground by a huge and very familiar pair of arms.

“Ack!! My beloved Ack!!” Tik eleth cried as she picked up her ooman mate into a tight embrace,

“Tik!! Holy shit it’s really you!! Oh Tik my love it’s so good to see you again!!” Jack exclaimed as he tightly embraced her and clung to her despite his feet dangling in the air, he could actually feel tears of sheer joy stinging his eyes behind his mask as he clung to the woman he loved, finally she placed him back down on the ground, 

“Where did you get that armor? It looks old?” she asked flicking a hand through his billowing cape,

“It’s a long story and trust me when I say you’re gonna want to hear it, but I think it’s safe to say the sleeping Dreamer is now fully awake and ready to kick bad blood arse” Jack said with a smile behind the mask, it was at that point he noticed Tik staring at the top of his mask, 

“Dreamer? Wait, no it can’t be that’s not possible you’re ooman!?” she said gripping the side of his head and leaning in to look at the mark on his mask, then she jumped back and looked at him,

“You’re a Dream warrior!!?” she exclaimed, Jacks eyes widened in surprise,

“Wait how the hell did you just figure that out!?” he asked,

“That mask, it’s my great great grandfathers, that’s his mark on it what old clan mark is based on, he was a legendary Dream Warrior!!” she exclaimed staring at her beloved male in disbelief,

“Ok well yeah that sorta explains it, yeah well I met the guy” Jack said, Tik’s eyes nearly popped out of her mask,

“You met Tan sel eleth!!!?” she exclaimed, Jack nodded,

“That I day I went out hunting I saw a random Yaujta male in the forest and followed him, he led me to this cave which turned out to be his final resting place, turns out that planet we were on wasn't random at all, it was the place of a massive battle long ago, the bad bloods were a faction in a long ago war, warriors like Tan stomped them good ut not without massive cost, it scattered the remaining bad bloods to the winds but severely cost the Yaujta as a whole” Jack said,

“The war of redemption, you've seen it haven’t you!?” Tik said in complete disbelief, Jack nodded, 

“Yeah, I saw Tan’s memories when he bonded with me in the cave the massive loss to the Yaujta to stamp out the rising bad bloods, but it was a price willing paid by each of those honorable warriors as it was a worthy cause” Jack said.

Tik eleth couldn't believe it, the man she loved beyond everything was one of the few that Yaujta revered above all others, he was a Dream Warrior, a seer of the unseen, they were the rarest and most feared warriors in Yaujta lore, it was said that a single Dream Warrior could turn the tide of any battle as they seemed to know the enemies plans before they even made them and in combat they were the most feared opponents as they just seemed to know what the enemy was thinking, it was said that one of these warriors was worth a thousand hunters, she turned and dropped to one knee before him saluting him with a balled fist to her chest as her tradition demanded when greeting a warrior of this stature, Ack rushed forwards and grabbed her pulling her back to her feet, she looked at him in confusion, “Oh hell no, don’t you fucking dare bow to me!!” Ack yelled, Tik eleth looked at him with confusion,   
“You are the woman I love, you are Tik eleth proud huntress and you fucking stand tall! You are my equal in everything and you bow to pauking no-one especially not me!!” he said,

“But…..” Tik eleth started, but Ack raised a hand to cut her off, 

“Ok I get it Yaujta tradition right?” he said, she nodded,

“I might be a Dream Warrior but I am not Yaujta and you are the woman I love, you are my life mate and you are my equal partner, I am only one half of a whole that is far stronger, we do this together as a pair on equal terms or not at all” he said in a defiant tone, this made Tik eleth’s heart swell with both pride and joy that her male held her in such high esteem that even now as a Dream Warrior one of the elitist warriors he still revered and honored her, she smiled broadly behind her mask, 

“Together as one then my beloved ooman mate” she said putting a hand on his armored shoulder, he nodded approvingly,

“That’s more like it my love, I’m still the same Ack you know and love I just have some added bonuses now” he said with a jokey in his voice that made her smile, then his senses suddenly alerted to approaching trouble, “I’d love to continue this reunion but we have to get the hell out of here, it isn't me they wanted it was you” he said, Tik nodded her head with her face hidden by her mask it was hard for him to tell what she was thinking, 

“I know” she said solemnly,

“Then let’s get the hell out of here” he said turning to go, but as he did Tik grabbed his arm, 

“What’s wrong we need to leave” Jack said,

“Not yet, we leave now, they pursue us, we need to give them a fight to stop them chasing us, give us time to escape” she said, Jack thought about this and instantly realized that she was right, but how if they stood and fought then they’d be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers eventually, 

“Got a plan?” he asked, Tik nodded her head silently, 

“Then lead on my love, I've got your back” he said pulling his rifle from his shoulder and cocking it for the first time since being on this ship, it felt damn good to be back fighting by her side again where he belonged, alone they were strong together they were unstoppable, Tik nodded and headed off in the direction that he’d just come from, but Jack didn't question this as he trusted the woman he loved with his life.

The pair of them headed back through the corridors back to where they’d been torturing Jack for information, he glanced into the room where he’d been held as they passed and he saw the dead body of the young blood right where he’d left it, but there were more foot prints in the blood now than there had been showing that there had been others in there since, Jack snorted at their lack of respect for their dead, that young blood may have been stupid but at least he’d had the balls to fight him honorably in a one on one duel, Tik glanced at him when he did this before glancing into the room herself, seeing the dead body she knew that it was his doing but she never said a word, finally they reached a large door and Tik got on one side of it, Jack stacked up on the other side in a standard breaching pattern, “Control room” Tik said in a quiet voice, he nodded and reached for the panel, 

“Breach in three, two, one” he said and as he said one he hit the panel causing the door to slide open, Tik went in first followed immediately by Jack, she went right and he went left, the four bad bloods in the room never knew what hit them as the two of them unleashed a barrage of shots on them with their plasma casters.  
The room was full of computers covered in the Yaujta language as well as a few large tables with red holograms showing detailed outlays of rooms, “So what’s the plan?” Jack said looking at Tik who was studding the computers, 

“They want a hunt we give them one” she said with an evil sounding voice, then immediately she turned and started pressing buttons on the computers, Jack spotted pictures of various creatures popping up on the screens including two he was very familiar with, one was the dino dozer that he’d met on the first day on that rock, the other was a kiande amedha queen and a drone, after she was finished alarms started sounding all over the ship, Jack looked at her, “You just let all the nasty’s out didn’t you?” he asked, she nodded and he burst out laughing,   
“Oh well the enemy of my enemy is my friend right?” he said,

“We go now before it too late” Tik said and Jack nodded, they both turned and at a run both of them headed back out following Tik’s map of the ship.  
As it turned out releasing all of the species currently held on the bad bloods clan ship opened up a whole Pandora’s box of fucking chaos, as they ran both of them could see and hear running battles from all around them, there were screams and roars from everywhere and Jack even heard a few familiar screeches from his old friends the bugs, funny to think that this time they were sort of on the same side, not that they wouldn't have killed them as soon as look at them. 

Considering the abuse that his body had taken Jack was surprised at how well his body was coping, it must be something to do with this Dream Warrior thing, it was strange thought, he didn't feel like he’d actually gained something more that something that had always been there in the background had awoken, maybe somewhere in his lineage he had some Yaujta blood, if such a thing was possible.   
Jack pushed himself to keep up with Tik as she ran through the seemingly endless corridors and passages ways of the massive ship, from time to time they fought off a few bad bloods here and there, Jack even took one down that blindsided Tik with the ancient Katana by ramming it through the side of his head with a fury that made his actually drive it right to the hilt, as his hands gripped the ancient weapon his mind was flooded with imagery of its previous owner and he saw right back to feudal Japan and the warrior who it belonged to as he trained and instantly Jack’s body responded with the same skill that he himself had taken years to learn, so it seemed that when a weapon was used in combat it carried a print of its owners one it like a spiritual residue that carried a lot of their knowledge and skills with it like a sort of high speed training manual, pretty fucking useful really.

But finally they reach the hanger bay where they kept all of the drop ships and a whole host of other types, Jack looked around in awe at the sheer level of technology present in the massive room, “There that one” Tik said pointing to a fairly large ship, it was pointed and kinda reminded Jack of a swooping eagle by the sharp lines that ran into a beak like point on the bow, 

“Nice choice” he said as he followed her, as it turned out that more than a few of the bad bloods had the idea of abandoning ship too and their run for the ship turned into a running gun battle the entire way as they weaved between cover and dodged shots from all directions, both Jack and Tik got clipped more than once, Jack was under so much fire he decided to resort to his faithful AS50 as well as both of his plasma casters firing three shots in three different directions at once, in fact as he began to do this he noticed things seeming to slow down a bit like the world was crawling around him.  
Tik eleth couldn't believe what she was seeing when she saw this, she realized she was seeing why Dream Warriors were so feared as Ack was shooting targets literally as they appeared, it was like he knew where they were going to be and when so he was timing his shot to coincide with their appearance, if it hadn't been such pauking chaos and they weren't fighting for their lives she’d have stood and watched in awe as this amazing beloved male of hers fought as he was really a spectacle to behold, as they turned the corner to the gantry that led to the ship there was an absolutely massive male stood at the end of it with a spear staff and dressed in totally black ceremonial armor, a black aura billowed around this guy, he was flanked by two other large warriors on either side of him, suddenly Jack’s world slowed right down and he felt his body moving on automatic, it was like something possessed him and he had no control, “Shadow claw WHORE!!! I will make you……” he started before he was cut short cover as a large ooman spear came flying through the air and slammed into his abdomen, 

“Fucking catch this!!” Ack yelled, then as he began to move he heard words being spoken aloud it took him a second to realize that it was him speaking them, “Dyma un, gyda hawliadau at mil  
mawr Helfeydd,  
Ond yr holl sydd ganddynt, yn styntiau gwag.  
Hawliad, byddwch yn gwneud, deeds da dewr byth yn ei wneud,  
Y cyfan sydd gennych yn Cywilydd o Un.  
Peidiwch byth â dangos eich wyneb gan y golau dydd,  
Ar gyfer eich Dishonour yw'r cyfan y maent yn ei ddweud.  
Cryfder, yr ydych yn dweud bod gennych ond am brawf yma oes un,  
Gwirionedd yn ar ffurf y gwir hwn yn Un” he said aloud as he moved, this stunned him as he couldn't remember being able to speak Welsh even though one of his teachers in school had tried to teach it to him when he was very young when he found out about Jack’s Welsh blood, it seemed the Welsh Celtic warrior who had owned that spear had rubbed off on him a bit stronger than just showing him how to throw it properly, it seemed that his Celtic heritage had aligned momentarily with that of the ancient warrior and he’d spoken some sort of battle poem at the bad bloods which was odd because he’d never understood poetry, but in his mind he heard what he was saying in English, ‘Here's one, with claims to a thousand Large Hunts,  
But all they have is empty stunts.  
Claim, you do, good brave deeds never done,  
All you have is a Shame of One.  
Never show your face by the light of day,  
For your Dishonor is all they say.  
Strength, you say that you have no one here for proof,  
Actually this is the true form of the One’ is what he’d said aloud in Welsh.

Tik eleth began to turn to look at Ack but he was no longer next to her, he was moving forwards at incredible speed in fact he was so fast her eyes could barely follow him, as he moved she heard strange words being spoken in Ack’s voice but they were some sort of strange language that she’d never heard before, but for some reason sounded very musical and poetic, he closed the gap between them in seconds, then he stepped on the large Celtic spear sticking out of the bad blood elder and sprung upwards and planting his hands on his massive shoulders he flipped over him, as he did both his plasma casters spun and blew the two surprised males to his sides away with a single simultaneous shot to the side of their heads, then when he landed behind the massive male it was at that point Tik realized that as he was upside down Jack had spun and slit the elders throat with his extended wrist blades, the male dropped gurgling to his knees, “The huntress will avenge me” he hissed before dropping face down dead on the board walk, Ack walked back to Tik eleth’s side and as he walked she swore she could see power swirling around him like a white fire but it must have been his cloak,  
“No-one insults my female and lives to tell about it” he growled, she smiled at him then grabbed his hand and led him towards the ship hatch.

As they boarded it they found it completely empty, Tik eleth immediately dropped into the pilot’s seat and started powering the ship up and closed all the hatches, “This thing have a gunner’s seat?” Jack asked, without looking away from her panel she pointed at a seat with joysticks that seemed to rotate, Jack dropped into it and immediately a silver screen dropped right in front of his face, he found himself looking between to massive looking plasma cannons on the outer hull of the ship, “Sweet, time to eat shit and die mother fuckers!!!!” he roared as he started pulling the triggers on anything that moved and quite a few things that didn't, like the other berthed ships, suddenly they started to move and under Tik’s expert piloting they headed for the exit of the hanger, Jack swung the turret around and fired at any other ship lifting off, blowing pretty much all of them out of the sky, then Tik kicked in some sort of after burners and they accelerated away from the bad blood clan ship like a missile, as they skirted the outside of it Jack marveled at how massive it was, but that didn't stop him firing burst after burst into any point on the hull that looked weak, as he did he heard a voice in his head that sounded familiar and rather gravelly, “This one” it said and his vision noticed a grey swirl around a vent panel on the side near the massive engines, so he turned the turret and let rip with everything he had at it, suddenly it imploded and he noticed fire spreading behind the panels and bulkheads, as they headed away he started to see small explosions happening all around the ship, “Err Tik I think I might have hit something sensitive, you might wanna step on it!!” he yelled to her, Tik turned to look and saw the explosions bursting along inside the hull and she pushed the throttles to full and they headed away from the massive clan ship at full clip just getting out of range before the whole thing imploded and burst like a massive bright blue ball of fire.


	20. Taste Of Freedom

Tik eleth stared in disbelief at the space that the bad blood clan ship had only seconds ago occupied, but now all there was just floating debris, they’d done it they hadn't just beat the bad bloods they’d killed the entire clan.  
“YEAH!!!” Ack roared from the gunner’s seat behind her, she smiled at the debris under her mask, four whole seasons she’d been stranded on that planet, a play thing for those pauks, hunted mercilessly by everything that walked hopped or flew and now she was finally free, free to go where ever she wanted, then she glanced at her cheering mate in the gunner’s seat and her smile broadened, with whom she wanted.

Jack cheered and clapped his hands at the destruction of the bad blood clan ship, the nightmare had finally ended, he looked at the side of his mate’s head and he could see her shoulders sag in the pilot's seat, he could almost feel the relief washing over her from here, it had been bad enough for him and he’d only been their prisoner for a short while, she’d been here years, hunted every single day mercilessly by everyone and everything, constantly living looking over her shoulder, expecting attack from any side at any given moment and now she was free. He got out of his seat and walked over to her and just wrapped his arms around her from behind putting his head against the side of hers, he felt her stiffen for a second but he knew that was just her honed hunters instincts, the second she realized that it was him she instantly softened and gripped his hands holding them on her chest, then he said the words that had been bouncing round in his head since he’d seen her on that ship of nightmares, “You came for me” he said softly feeling tears actually welling up in his eyes, Tik turned her masked face to look at him, 

“As you would have come for me” she said, he laughed softly,

“In a heartbeat” he said pressing his masked face against hers.

Now came the big decision that they both knew had to be made but both were a bit worried about voicing it, finally Jack broke the silence between them, “So where to now?” he asked, Tik looked at him through her visor, 

“I don’t know” she said,

“Well I’m pretty sure neither of us can go home here, you can’t go back to your clan with me in tow and I can’t go back to Earth with you in tow” he said, Tik said nothing just nodded silently in agreement as she thought it over, “But let me just say this, I have to admit that although I am sad that I’ll never see my home world again it isn't really my home” he said, this caused Tik to look up at him curiously, “You Tik eleth are my life mate, that means that as long as I’m with you I don’t care where I am, being with you means I am home” he said.

Ack’s words touched Tik eleth’s heart in a way that no-one ever had, she smiled under her mask at this wonderful ooman, he always seemed to know what to say and the best time to say it to her, he truly understood her in a way that on-one ever had or had ever bothered to, suddenly she felt her heart steel and she knew exactly what she had to do, although it saddened her that she would never see her clan again his words reminded her of the pledge she’d taken when she’d claimed him as her life mate, she turned and brought up a galaxy map, with a few presses of a few buttons the ship suddenly pitched and turned, then the engines fired up and they were under way at high speed, Ack looked at her actions curiously and she could feel his eyes turn onto her, turning to look at him, “I am Tik eleth, proud huntress and matriarch of the proud clan Mason, if our clans reject us then that is their loss, from this moment forwards our honor and our glory will be our own, we shall strike out for ourselves and claim a new home and make it ours” she said tapping a few keys on the board, this caused a hologram of a planet to jump up on the desk, the planet looked sort of looked like Earth but with far more water than land mass, Ack looked at it then he turned to her, 

“It could be a barren moon for all I care as long as I have you by my side I’m happy” he said, this instantly made Tik eleth purr under her mask, just as she thought just the right thing to say and at the right time.

For the first time since all this began Jack truly felt like he could relax, he stepped back from Tik and decided to take the bloody armor that he’d been wearing off, the first thing he removed was the mask which he threw down on the gunner’s seat, then he unclipped all of the weapons he was carrying and put them down before removing the armor over his head, it was now that the pain truly hit him as up until now he’d been running on raw adrenaline and it had blocked it all out, it was joined at the same time by an exhaustion that he’d never felt before, it was like someone had literally pulled his batteries out, the sheer pain combined with this exhaustion actually dropped him to his knees on the deck plate, in an instant Tik was out of the pilot’s seat and by his side, at some point she must have removed her mask as he’d had his back to her because the second she saw his face her mandibles dropped open, “Not the looker that you remember eh my love?” Jack said trying to make a joke of the mess of his face, but he could actually see the sheer level of pain in her eyes as the results of the bad bloods interrogation tactics hit her,

“Ack, oh my Ack, this is all my fault!” she said taking his face in her big hands, she actually looked like she might cry.

The second that Tik eleth saw Ack’s face her heart broke, his entire face looked like a giant swollen angry black blue bruise, one of his eyes was swollen shut, both of the fleshy things he called lips was split and scabbed, one of his cheek bones looked like it might be broken and his brow was swollen over his eyes, she knew that they’d done this to him to get him to tell them where she was, her mate her beautiful wonderful mate had endured all of this pain because of her and it broke her heart, suddenly he grabbed her hands and pulled which caused her to drop to the floor at his level, then he took both sides of her face and brought his face to hers so she was staring into his one good eye, she could see the fire behind that sapphire blue, “Don’t you dare blame yourself for this you hear me?” he said his voice full of fire,

“But……” she started,

“No, not one single part of this is your fault, they took me because they thought I was a weak pitiful ooman who would give you up to save myself, what they didn't count on just how much this weak pitiful ooman loves you, and how much this weak pitiful ooman was actually glad that they got him” he said, this caused Tik eleth’s brow to fly up in surprise,

“You were glad?” she said in surprise, Ack nodded his head in her hands,

“Because if they had me that meant that they’d never get you, because there was no way in hell that I was going to give you up, I’d have died first, and every time they hit me and asked me the same question I knew that you were safe and that they had no idea how much joy that brought me, because if they had got you and had hurt you then I’d have torn the entire ship and them apart with my bare hands, you are my annwyl, my one and only” he said quietly. Tik eleth’s heart felt like it was going to burst, she threw her arms around Ack and hugged him as tightly as she could against her chest, for the first time in her life she felt tears leave her eyes as the enormity of what her mate had done for her hit her, his sheer love for her overwhelmed her and she was shocked as the hot tears started to flow, but once they started she couldn't stop them, then she felt Ack pull her head into the nape of his neck and his shoulder, “It’s ok, Shhhh now it’s ok, just let it all out” he said in the softest voice she’d ever heard and with those words Tik eleth actually broke down, the enormity of it all hit her all at once, her nightmare was over, she was no longer a prisoner, she was free now, free of being hunted like an animal, free of the threat of being killed or raped by the bad blood vermin, then came all the pain and humiliation she had suffered and not just in the last couple of seasons but her entire life, this also hit her all at once as memories all the way back to her childhood where she’d had to fight harder than everybody else and even then for her triumphs to be spat on by her peers and everyone else, then came the pain and hurt this ooman this wonderful, exquisite, passionate, kind, gentle, loving ooman male had suffered on her behalf and he had just told her that he was happy to have suffered it for her because then she wasn't suffering it, for someone to happily take pain from her and to carry it themselves with no regrets really topped it all off, she couldn't take it anymore, Tik eleth broke, she collapsed in his arms and sobbed her heart out into the shoulder of the male she loved more than life.

Jack simply held the woman he loved as she balled her eyes out in his arms, he felt her hot tears soaking his shoulder and running over his skin, he felt her shaking in his arms and he tightened his grip letting her know that he was there for her and that he would from now on always be there for her, he made a silent vow to himself that while he still drew breath no-one would ever hurt this wonderful woman ever again, he would be her shield and her sword, anyone that wanted to hurt her was going through him first.

 

After Tik eleth recovered she felt mortified that she had broken down like that, she was a proud Yaujta huntress and matriarch and here she was balling her eyes out like a cub! What must her male think of her, but as she lifted her head Ack instantly brought his hand up to her face and dried her tears, in his eye she saw not a look of shame or of disgust but of pure love, he smiled at her broadly showing her his warriors teeth which were partially stained with his blood form his wounds, “Thank you Ack” she said quietly, his smile simply got bigger,

“Any time” he said, now it was her turn to smile at him but then her eyes were drawn to his wounds again,   
“Let us get you healed” she said standing up, she offered her hand down to him and he took it, she lifted him carefully to his feet and he nodded at her, letting her lead him to the ship’s medical bay.

It wasn’t till Tik helped him take the rest of his gear off she actually got to see the extent of the damage that the bad bloods had done to his body, she stripped him completely naked and for the first time the true extent of his injuries were reveled, he could see Tik’s eyes roaming over his body and he could see her expression constantly fluctuating between horror, rage, pity and hurt, Jack decided to deflect it with his customary humor, “Hey I hope you’re not getting any ideas about taking any advantages of your naked helpless male here?” he said playfully, Tik’s eyes snapped up to his and she saw that he was playing and her expression softened, she placed a massive hand on his chest and gently pushed him towards the medical bed,   
“As much as I wish to pounce on Ack I wait until he healed” she said softly with a hint of playfulness in her voice, he quickly gripped her hand and pulled her down to him so that she was face to face with him, he moved his face to hers and she instantly knew what he wanted and opened his mandibles for him, he pulled her into a passion filled kiss, God he’d missed the feel and taste of her, he felt her tongue playing with his now in his mouth before she pulled his from his mouth and in to hers, they stayed locked together loving the feel and taste of one another for a solid two minutes before they broke up, “I must heal you now Ack, or I may not be able to resist pouncing on you” Tik panted playfully but something in her eyes told him that there was actually a hint of seriousness to her statement, he smiled at her broadly and laid back, 

“Do with me as you will my love” he said causing her to smile and actually laugh.

The scanner swept over Jack’s body and pretty soon a hologram popped up of his body, it was covered in lines and dots indicating wounds, as he watched her fussing about mixing liquids and preparing tools to fix his wounds up Jack couldn't help but smile as an image of Tik in a nurse’s uniform swam into his head, as she turned to apply something to his body she noticed him smiling at her and she tilted her head in confusion, then he noticed her glance down his body before looking back at him and this time she was the one smiling.   
He glanced down himself to see what she was smiling at and instantly noticed that he now had a massive erection standing proudly up, this actually made him smile even more as given the face that he’d taken more than one kick down there from those bad blood fucks he was pretty glad that it was still working, “Sorry you just have that effect on me my love” he said playfully, Tik walked over to him and began applying lotions and potions to his wounds but she also decided to tease him a bit, she applied most of the lotions to him with tools, but then she began to apply one to her hands and then she ran it over his manhood coating it in the healing solution, the wonderful feeling of her rough warm skin made him hiss, then she looked at him and saw the look in his one good eye and she leaned down to his face, “Later my male” she said with a soft seductive purr to her voice, he smiled at her broadly,  
“I’ll hold you to that” he said, she returned his smile now,

“A huntress always keeps her word” she said softly before leaning down and drawing him into a kiss.

As she worked questions swam around in Tik eleth’s mind, from behind her Ack must have noticed this because he smiled at her, “If you want to ask me something go ahead there will never be any secrets between us” he said, she was surprised that she was so easy for him to read like that, but given he was a Dream Warrior she guessed that it really shouldn't be so surprised as they were famed for being able to see right through people, 

“The language you spoke when you attacked the elder, what was it?” she asked, Ack smiled through his broken lips, 

“It was Welsh” he replied, this confused her as she’d never heard of this language,

“It’s an ancient language from my world and in modern times has been thankfully revived” he said,

“It’s beautiful” Tik eleth, Ack waved a hand with a smile,

“Before you ask I don’t know much to speak it fluently, that poem I spoke when I attacked the elder was being channeled as I got in touch with the Celtic blood that resides in me combined with the spirit of the owner of that spear I threw” he replied, then Tik thought of something else,

“You called me annwyl before, what does that mean?” she asked, he grinned at her pronunciation of it,

“It means beloved” he said and this caused her to smile broadly,

“As you are my annwyl” she said stroking his face and planting a kiss on his lips, then as she moved away another question came to her mind,

“When you said you met Tan sel eleth……” she began, he started nodding,

“Yeah, nice guy actually, told me to look after you and to promise to protect and love you no matter what” he said, she couldn't believe it, he actually met her great great grandfather the legendary Tan sel eleth who’s deeds were sung about and told of in stories told among her people even today, then he appeared to be smiling not at her but at the corner of the room, she looked where he was looking but saw nothing, then he glanced back at her, “In fact he’s here right now” he said and her mandibles dropped open again.

Jack had noticed the shadowy figure standing in the corner as they’d been talking and his attention had been drawn to him and he’d smiled at Tan in greeting, he stepped out of the corner and placed a balled fist against his chest in greeting which Jack returned, Tik noticed this and spun to look, but again saw nothing, Tan walked over to the side of the bed and stood looking at Jack, “You did well young Dream Warrior, you've done your clan proud as you've done mine proud” he said looking first at him then at Tik who was still searching for him in the room, 

“Thank you for showing me the way” Jack replied,

“There is no need to thank me, the power was always within you, it just needed a nudge” Tan replied,

“But without that nudge there’s no way I’d have been able to do what I did and I’d have never been able to protect the one I love, so in truth I owe you a debt I can never repay” Jack said, Tan made a dismissive gesture with his hand,

“Dream Warrior or not you have the fire of a true warrior in your heart and I can see why my granddaughter loves you so” he said, Jack looked embarrassed,

“It is a feeling returned” he replied, Tan smiled his mandibles broadly, 

“I know I've seen your heart remember?” he replied, this embarrassed Jack,

“But I know what it is to feel like you owe a debt that needs to be repaid, so if you wish I’ll show you another element of your gift and in using it you can repay me” Tan said, 

“Anything just name it” Jack said instantly, so Tan stepped forwards and placed a hand on the side of Jack head instantly causing his eyes to change color as imagery flashing into his mind showing him what to do, Tik saw this and jumped back looking in him surprise, once Tan was done Jack understood what he wanted him to do and he smiled, 

“I know your powers are burned out but if you can do this if only a few seconds for me I’d be forever in your debt” Tan said,

“I’ll do it” Jack said and Tan smiled, then Jack turned to look at the very confused and worried Tik who was standing there wringing her hands watching the one sided exchange between her beloved and the invisible entity, 

“Do you trust me my beloved?” he asked, Tik actually looked angry at this, 

“Of course with all of my soul!!” she exclaimed, 

“Then come here” he said beckoning her to come to him, she did so instantly and Jack sat up, he reached up and touched the side of her head and at the same time he closed his eyes, suddenly Tik’s vision flashed and blurred and her eyes changed to bright ice blue.

For a second Tik eleth was totally confused as to what was happening, but when the figure of the elder Yaujta turned to face her with a large smile she realized that somehow she was seeing exactly how her Ack saw the world, “Greetings my beloved granddaughter” the Yaujta said in Yaujta, suddenly she realized that this was Tan sel eleth and her mandibles dropped open, 

“H-H-H-How is this possible?” she replied in a Yaujta, his smile grew broader, 

“It’s a little known gift of being a Dream Warrior, Jack is able to connect his mind to yours and as long as he maintains his focus and stays in contact with you your beloved Jack is able to use his gifts to augment your vision and hearing so that you can see what he sees and hear what he hears, but this is extremely taxing on his body and his mind, it’s made easier by the fact that you two are mate’s as your hearts are in tune so he’ll be able to maintain the link for longer than he normally would” Tan sel eleth said, Tik eleth looked at the side of her life mate’s head and she could see the concentration written on his face,

“This won’t hurt him will it?” she asked worriedly, Tan sel eleth shook his head,

“If it would I’d have never asked him to do it, I know what he means to you and I know what you mean to him as I have seen into his heart and I know the strength of the feelings that this ooman male holds for you, he would literally walk into the gates of hell for you with a smile on his face, I've never seen a love so strong in all my years both alive and as a spirit” Tan sel eleth said, these words nearly made Tik eleth tear up again but she held her composure, 

“I asked him to do this so I could give you my blessing” Tan sel eleth said, Tik eleth looked confused at this,

“Blessing?” she asked, he nodded,

“As you cannot return to your clan as they would never understand your feelings for each other there is no patriarch available to bless your union, so I am here to do it on behalf of our clan and of true Yaujta, those alive today have become to blind and too narrow sighted to see the true power of love no matter the shape it comes in, so Tik eleth Mason and Jack Mason I offer you my blessing as the true patriarch of the clan eleth and the Shadow Claw clan to pursue your lives together and I wish you both the best for a prosperous life together, may your clan prosper and hunts be prosperous and honorable” he said pressing his hand to his chest and bowing to her, Tik eleth was totally stunned she’d just had her union to Ack blessed by the most legendary hunter in Yaujta history, she clenched her fist to her chest and returned his bow, 

“Thank you grandfather” she said, he nodded and then smiled at Ack, 

“Thank him for me when he recovers, I am going to leave now I hope you have a happy life together and know that I will always be watching over you both and will always be there if you need me” he said and with that he turned and faded from sight, Tik held out her hand but he was gone, there had been so many questions she’d wanted to ask him, suddenly her vision flickered and returned to normal as Ack broke the connection as his remaining strength gave out and he slumped back down on the bed, instantly her attention switched back to her beloved life mate, 

“Thank you for that my love I owe you a debt I can never repay” she said with tears I her eyes as the enormity of what he’d just done sank in, he grinned at her with spectacularly tired eyes, 

“You being happy is thanks enough” he replied and Tik eleth threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, finally her love for him had been validated. 

Once all his wounds had been tended and bandaged Tik eleth helped her mate to stand and she took him to the master quarters, she knew these ships well having served on one more than once during her clan hunts, the master quarters were the biggest as it was used either by an Elder or by the ship captain. The room was massive and filled with trophies from a verity of hunts, there were even kiande amedha skulls on the walls, whether they were from the bad bloods hunts or stolen glories from the ship’s previous owner was up for debate, but the bed would serve them both well, it was massive being at least ten foot long and easily wide enough to accommodate them both, despite the fact that he needed his rest as she knew that there was no way the bad bloods would have let Ack sleep while they held him there was no way she was going to be separated from him again, she would sleep in the arms of her male tonight, but first she had to check a few things.

As she lowered her naked and heavily bandaged male into the bed he was kind of groggy from the mixture of drugs he had been given as well as the exhaustion of over using his abilities, but he was lucid enough to try and pull her in with him and for a moment she nearly let herself go, but there were checks she had to perform as there was no crew on this ship to do it, so very reluctantly she pried her male’s grip from her and placed his arms down on his stomach as she pulled the covers over him, he looked at her with a confused look in his eye, “Worry not my love, I will be with you soon, I must check the ship first and then I will return to you, this I swear” she said, Ack nodded weakly and she could see the exhaustion and the drugs pulling him down and he was asleep even before she had chance to stand back up properly, she smiled down at his sleeping form, after all he had endured a good sleep was the least that he deserved, she also couldn't wait to hold him in her arms again and the nagging ache to hold her male and to be one with him fired up in her, but she knew she must do these duties first, so with one last glance of longing at her male she turned and went to check the ship.

The ship itself was remarkable well maintained and in good shape considering that it had been in the hands of the bad bloods, the never usually bothered maintain their equipment and usually just stole more when things broke rather than choosing to spend time or effort on making things last, this particular type of ship was used mainly for larger hunting parties or for transporting VIP’s to and from various clan ships for meetings etc. It would usually have a crew of about twenty hunters on board to run its operations and to maintain it, but now given that it was only the two of them it was going to be a kinda of full time job to make sure that everything worked properly and stayed that way. But this ship while it would be a lot of work for them would be perfect for them, for in this ship they could go anywhere, it was well equipped and very heavily armed for its size, the one thing that Tik had noticed was that the bad bloods had spent the time and effort slapping much bigger guns than these usually had on it, it now had the fire power of a medium cruiser rather than the corvette that it actually was, so combined with the uprated shields and power supply they also slapped on, it would easily be able to hold its own in a fight. Checking the engines over they seemed to be working totally fine and they even had a full supply of fuel, when they’d taken it, it must have been made ready for one of their elders to head out on a hunt or something because from what she could tell it was fully stocked, it had a fully inventory of food, weapons and other supplies.  
After an hour of running around checking all of the systems and making sure that the internal sensors had logged both her and Ack as the new crew, Tik used her wrist computer to quickly preform a trick that she she’d learned from one of the engineers of her clan that she’d been friendly with, using the sensors to read both her and Ack she tied all of the ships systems into their DNA codes, this meant that now only her and he could use anything on this ship, to anybody else it was now as much use as a rock, this meant that it could now never be taken from them or used against them.  
As the symbols of code flashed up that informed her that the software upgrade was now installed and was now operational and also permanent she smiled, but then a thought crossed her mind that made her smile, she was going to have to teach Ack how to read Yaujta for him to be able to operate anything around here, the thought of them drawing even closer through a deeper understanding of her language made her smile broader and maybe he’d return the favor by teaching her some of that beautiful Welsh language he knew, but it also awoke the ache that had hidden in her while she’d been busy, she needed to hold her male in her arms again, so with one last check on the systems she locked everything down and secured the ship, then she got up and headed for their new quarters.

As she reached it she found Ack sleeping peacefully, he had somehow managed to turn onto his side facing the door and she looked at his sleeping face, the drugs were already having an effect in that some of the swelling was gone but it still made her heart ache at just how much pain he must have endured to protect her, this ooman was as tough as they could possibly come, she quickly shut the door behind her and stripped herself off completely, there would be no sleeping clothes here, nothing but the feel of her male’s naked skin against her own would do, slowly she slipped under the covers behind him and moved so that she could gently take him into her arms, as she ran her hands over his chest and stomach she felt both of his hands catch hold of hers, he instantly entwined his fingers with hers and held one on his heart and the other on his belly, she pressed her front to his back and nestled her face in his hair breathing his wonderful scent in deeply till it filled her up, then with a contented exhale she pressed her face to the back of his head, “I love you Ack more than you will ever know” she said in a whisper before closing her eyes and letting sleep finally claim her.


	21. New Home New Hope

Chapter 21: New Home New Hope.

Jack woke up feeling like he’d been cut apart and stitched back together by a blind man with a serious case of the shakes, Yaujta medical tech was seriously efficient and could cure just about anything you threw at it but it was about as subtle as knocking on a door with a car.  
As his consciousness rebooted and he became aware of more than just the pain he realized he was being gripped from behind, he smiled as he realized he had one of Tik’s hands planted squarely on his heart and their fingers were locked in a lover’s knot. Her other hand was pressed on his stomach forcing his body and hers into a perfect curve, feeling her rough but soft skin pressed against the entirety of his back and her long legs entwined with his. He had to admit that although he was used to being the big spoon this was rather nice, there was something very comforting about being held like this, it felt safe.  
As he laid like that for a little while he started to noticed Tik twitching and moving, he heard her click her mandibles more than once and he realized it was not the happy click, he also heard his name murmured softly in her sleepy voice. Her grip tightened on him more than once and it almost seemed like she was trying to stop him from being taken from her, he figured that she must be having a bad dream. So he decided to do a little comforting of his own, with a bit of work, considering Tik’s grip was like a vice, he managed to disengage from her and turn over in her arms. Slipping his own arms around her large frame he pulled himself tight to her chest and pressed his face into her shoulder, “It’s ok my mate I’m here” he whispered in a soft voice into her ear. With one hand, he stroked the back of her head tenderly, while with the other he traced up and down her back, allowing his nails to softly rake into the curve of her spine. The effect was instantaneous, she immediately calmed and pulled him closer. Her grip becoming more gentle and pleasant, yet still firm and possessive. 

As Tik eleth woke the first thing that swam into focus was the face of her male, he was laid facing her with his arms blissfully wrapped around her. She could feel him stroking the back of her head as well as running his finger up and down the curve of her spine, “Good morning sleeping beauty, sleep well?” he asked in a cheerful voice. The feeling of his fingers stroking her spine made her purr in pleasure briefly then smile back at him, “I always sleep well with you beside me” she said softly, Ack flashed her his wonderful teeth and leaned in to kiss her, she opened her mandibles wide for him and he slid his tongue into her waiting mouth to begin the loving dance with hers that they both enjoyed so much, he never could find the words to describe just how much he adored the feeling of twisting and wrestling his tongue with hers before inviting her to leave her own mouth for his.   
They parted breathlessly from their passionate kiss, Tik eleth smiled at the wonderful face of her mate, “We’re finally free of those pauks” she said, he smiled back at her.  
“I know and I’ve never been so happy in my life, we’re free to live and love together for the rest of our lives. But I suppose, in a way, we do owe those sick fucks a debt of gratitude” Ack said, Tik eleth looked at him with a confused and surprised expression, 

“Debt? What debt?” 

He reached in and nuzzled the side of her face, planting a few soft kisses on her mandibles,   
“Without them dragging me to that hell hole to hunt me then I’d have never met you and I’d have never known the power of true love” he said. His words made her purr softly, she realized he was, surprisingly, right. Without the bad bloods, they never would have met and she’d still be alone. But she now laid in bed, naked as the day she was born, in the arms of the male she loved more than life itself.  
As she ran her fingers over the skin of his back she felt herself growing hot under the collar, she wanted to celebrate their victory and their love in the most beautiful way. The look in Ack’s eyes as well the feel of his malehood pressing against her belly, told her that he felt the same way, but he was still injured and it would be risky for them.

He seemed to read the hesitance in her eyes, “It’s ok my love, take me if you want me, but just please be gentle. I got enough wounds for one day.” he said in a soft growl in her ear, his words drawing a deep purring growl from her throat. She rolled him onto his back and climbed on top of him, resting her weight on his hips, “I will be gentle my love, and I will be slow. I wish to savor you.” she purred seductively. With that she reached between her legs and took hold of his throbbing malehood gently with her large hand, she slowly peeled his skin back and exposed the large bright purple head. She lined it up with her entrance and moved down a little till his tip kissed her lower lips, before moving down any further she swirled her hips around in a circle causing his tip to rub around between her burning hot lower lips. This drew a gasp and a soft moan from both of them, after a few seconds of this she couldn't take it anymore she needed him inside her. She pushed down slowly, savoring each and every delicious inch as it forced her open, her moan echoed around the room as she felt his throbbing flesh grind against her insides on its way to her molten core. Tik eleth moved her hands to her male’s broad chest, gently racking her claws over his skin as the wonderful sensation of him filling her body made her moan in delight. As soon as he was fully hilted inside her, she rested her remaining weight on his hips and sat there enjoying the sensation of being connected to her male again. Then with a push, she withdrew him nearly all the way out of her, feeling his tip catching on every ridge of her inner folds before sinking right back down on him. She heard him moan in pleasure from under her causing her heart to race, she loved knowing that she was making her male feel good with her body. After all, he’d suffered on her behalf, making him feel good was the least she could do for him. Pretty soon, her pace increased, each push was accompanied by a wet slap as their burning flesh connected. He began pushing up into her downward thrusts so he was now reaching as deep as he could into her molten hot core. Stroking it with his malehood, each push was now drawing a moan from her as the intense pleasure welled inside her. He suddenly grabbed her hips and began to thrust harder and deeper into her, she leaned down onto him and he leaned up to her. They grabbed each other and pulled one another into a passionate kiss as their bodies continually connected over and over again, pretty soon neither of them could hold back and with a huge roar of pleasure she screamed his name to the goddess. It echoed around the room as a mind melting explosion of pleasure tore through her causing her inner most walls to clamp down on her he mate’s throbbing malehood holding it in place, wave after wave of raw intense pleasure crashed through her, only to be intensified again as she felt her love release inside her, sending jets of hot liquid pleasure into her core.

After the sheer intensity of their mutual orgasm had passed, they lay there locked together in a blissful embrace just enjoying the feel of each other, but eventually they both begrudgingly broke from it, got up from their bed and got dressed. As they made their way to the control room they held hands as they walked.

“How long till we reach our destination?” Jack asked, Tik was looking at he read outs, 

“Too long for us to remain awake, we’ll have to use the hyper sleep bunks” she said. While Jack didn't like the idea of being asleep for that long, he figured that it would at least give his body a chance to heal up. Tik eleth finalized a few things with the controls like using the optical and sensor camouflage to hide the ship completely, then she took Ack’s hand and led him down to the hyper sleep quarters.   
He stood looking at the massive glass coffin like contraptions, the whole premise of being asleep while the ship flew itself with no-one at the helm really seemed like a bad idea to Jack. But he trusted Tik and she didn’t seem worried, she told him to strip to his underwear before getting in and as he did so he noticed her doing the same. Despite what they had just done, he couldn't help but watch her. He felt so lucky to have found such an amazing woman out here in the depths of space. He knew the chances of them coming from totally different worlds, cultures and species and falling so completely in love with one another were astronomical. But yet here they were, the thought made him smile. Tik noticed him smiling at her and smiled right back.   
“Not worry my love, we will be together again soon I promise” Tik said as Jack climbed into his hyper sleep bunk. She placed all sorts of sensors on his chest and read outs began to pop up on the side panel of the bunk.   
“Well at least when I wake up we’ll be free and clear” he said,

“And together” Tik said and with that she closed the tube and the mechanism kicked in, the last thing Jack heard was a whirring noise, the last thing he saw was Tik mouthing ‘I love you’ clumsily with her mandibles through the glass, then the black came.  
As Tik eleth watched her life mate fall into hyper sleep she smiled at him, she couldn't wait for their trip to be over, then they could finally start their new lives together. She climbed into her own bunk after setting the auto engage, she quickly placed the sensors on herself, the mechanism kicked in and the black came for her.

Hyper sleep is a dreamless state, it’s like being in a void of infinite nothingness where neither time or reality seem to exist. But the benefit is that long periods of time pass in the blink of an eye. The four years it took for Tik eleth and Jack to complete their voyage to the planet that Tik eleth had selected for them, passed in what felt like a split second.  
The first thing that Jack became aware of was his own breathing, it seemed to echo through his mind as his thoughts slowly reconnected to his consciousness, and soon he was slowly able to open his eyes. It took a while for them to focus properly and he did feel rather dizzy for a bit, but the capsule opened by itself and a rush of air entered from outside. To his left, he heard the other capsule opening, he leaned forwards just in time to see Tik’s large hands grip the sides and pull herself forwards. She immediately looked over at his capsule and smiled as she saw him looking right back at her, “It looks like we've arrived” he said. She nodded,  
“Our new home” she said happily.

After getting themselves changed back into their gear, both of them went to the control room. Through the window Jack smiled as he saw the massive deep blue and browns of the massive planet, Tik dropped herself down into the pilot’s seat and started entering navigation data. She also scanned the planet for any hostile or sentient races, neither were detected. Thankfully there were no traces of the bugs either, she looked up at him with a smile, “Where shall we make our home my love?” she asked. he thought for a moment before smiling, 

“Well I've kinda had enough of jungles for a life time now so how about a nice normal forest, I kinda like the thought of building a log cabin.” he said, Tik clicked her mandibles happily and looked at her scan data before pulling up an image that showed a large forested area that was flanked by plains, “It’s perfect.” he said looking at the image of the massive trees moving in the breeze. Tik nodded and set the coordinates into the flight computer, slowly the ship turned and began it’s decent to their new home.  
The forest reminded Jack of the giant redwood forests of Earth, the massive towering trees that looked like living skyscrapers. They decided to hide the ship in a large cave out of sight, so that it could be properly powered down and conserve its fuel supply in case they needed it. While Tik was scouting the place for prey to hunt for food, Jack was scouting for a place for them to set up home. He smiled as he thought about moving into a house that they built with their own hands, just him and his alien life mate/wife. Sometimes life throws you a curveball and sometimes you hit a home run off it.

Thanks to the tech that was on the ship, it took Jack no time at all to fell the trees he needed to make the house. The forest was an amazing place, so full of life of every verity, from what looked like small song birds that even sang. To small canines that reminded him of foxes running around, curious of their newest residents. They lived on the ship for the entire three weeks that it took for them to make the bulk of the house, he had to admit it was fun watching Tik trying to get to grips with building things instead of killing things. She took to it like a duck to water, her immense strength came in rather handy while they were connecting up the frame work and when he had to raise the roof. But finally, with many cut fingers hammered thumbs and curse shouted in both languages, they now had a home to call their own.

After two whole months, the place was complete to the level that they truly called it home, the two-story house made from huge wooden logs and planks, stood like a sentinel on a flat plateau that over looked the main bulk of the forest.   
Inside the house was furniture that had been hand carved from wood and softened with the skins of various animals Tik had hunted.   
The walls were already covered with skulls that had been mounted to them in a number of places, trophies from their hunts.  
Their cutlery was metal made in a forge that Jack had set up behind the house, he would spend hours making things from utensils to bullets for his guns. Tik loved to watch him work the forge and would happily sit on a massive swing chair that over looked it while she polished skulls from her latest hunt.

Jack put the finishing touches to a dagger that he’d been working on for Tik, it was made from the metal that he’d found here. It was light like Aluminum but as strong as Titanium, it was a nightmare to forge, but the results were more than worth it. He ran the polishing tools over the long-curved blade which flashed gold silver in the sunlight, the handle had been made from the tusks of something that reminded Jack of a massive crocodile crossed with a lion. Tik had found the beast living a few miles away in a swampy area. Tik, being Tik, not only killed it, but she’d dragged the whole damn thing all the way back to the house to show him. But it had come in handy, for making the grip for this dagger. He’d also managed to find some blue gem stones that looked like sapphires down in the mine he’d made for digging up the metals, he’d set two of them into the hilt and polished them up as apparently sapphire blue was her favorite color.  
Jack found Tik at her work desk furiously working on a skull with her polishing tools, “Hey sweet heart got something for you” he said sliding up beside the big huntress. She looked away from her work and spotted what he was holding in his hands, her face lit up as she saw the massive curved dagger, “For me?!” she asked,

“Know any other gorgeous Yaujta huntresses that I should give presents of love to then do you?” he said playfully, she smiled and gently punched him in the shoulder for teasing her, taking the dagger from him she admired the craftsmanship in the blade.   
“It’s wonderful, many prey shall fall to this weapon, I shall call it Love’s fury” she said proudly holding the dagger in her big hand, suddenly a wave of pain gripped her and she doubled over,   
“Tik!! Are you alright my love?” Jack said rushing in to grip her and hold her up,   
“Cramps” she said, he shook his head,

“Ok, proud huntress or not, that’s the third time this week. We’re going to the ship to use the medic scanner” he said guiding her by the hand, the last few times she had resisted this time Tik allowed her mate to lead her by the hand and shoulder out of the house and to the ship.

At the ship they powered up the med bay computers and Tik laid down on the bed, the scanner ran over her body a few times before it brought up a picture of her in a hologram. There was a red circle around her abdominal area and text began running up, Jack tried to read it but his Yaujta wasn't strong enough yet to grasp it. He turned and wasn't instantly caught by the whirlwind of emotions passing over his mate’s face, “What is it?” he asked in a worried tone, Tik turned to look at him and her face cracked into a huge smile and for only the second time ever, he saw tears in her eyes,   
“Ack I’m pregnant, I am carrying your cubs” she said,   
“We’re going to be parents?” he asked in total disbelief, she nodded trying to read his face, Jack’s heart nearly exploded in his chest and he just threw his arms around his mate and sobbed for sheer joy into her shoulder.


	22. Bonds of Blood

As it turns out Yaujta pregnancy is very similar to human, as she moved through the cycles and grew in size Tik demolished every type of food that Jack could provide. She also developed her own rather unusual cravings, he once watched her eat an entire leg of this six legged deer like creature that lives in the forest… dipped in cream that he made from a docile animal that had kind of reminded him of a deer crossed with a cow but with two heads and massive udders. 

Like their ooman counterpart’s, food cravings weren't the only thing that Yaujta females got while pregnant. Her sexual appetite, while it had always been healthy, had been turbo charged, she had taken a liking to hunting him while he was out on a hunt of his own. Just so she could have the thrill of catching him and making love to him. 

Jack had lost count of the amount of times he felt her presence and her intentions through his Dream Warrior abilities. He heard a telltale rustle in the trees above him, only to look up and get pounced on by the large huntress. In fact, he’d known she was there every single time as his abilities meant he was perfectly tuned into her spiritual signature. Which meant he could also see her aura even when she was cloaked, not that he needed to see her aura to see what tree she was hiding in, the bending tree limb from the amount of weight she’d gained gave her away… not that he was brave enough to tell her that however. 

So he just let her have her victory, to be fair he rather enjoyed being the object of her desires and the fact that she would go to all that effort just to make love to him thrilled him. But he had lost track of how many times he was forced to repair his clothes and sew up the claw gashes on his shirts and pants where she’d gotten a little carried away.

The mood swings were by far the worst thing; you think your girlfriend was bad during her pregnancy? Now imagine your girlfriend is 6ft 10in built like a brick shit house and able to tear you limb from limb. He was constantly having to hide all the weapons in the house, as well as himself on more than one occasion, which isn't easy when your life mate is a seasoned huntress. It was only thanks to his abilities that managed to save him on multiple occasions. In fact, it was a good thing that he liked building things as he had to repair and rebuild all the furniture on more than one occasion. Though on the other end of the emotional spectrum Tik was rather adorable and would cling to him, requiring almost constant cuddles which he loved providing.

But eventually they got her through it and then came the distinct joy of labor, fortunately Jack had seen this coming a mile off and had made himself ready. Still she did manage to crush one of the armored gauntlets that he’d made for himself to hold her hand while she was giving birth. But fortunately for Jack’s health, Tik’s labor wasn't long and soon they were the proud parents to twins. A boy and a girl, both perfect Yaujta/human hybrids.

The boy they named Ryan after Jack’s late father, the girl they named Sela eleth after Tik’s mother. Both of them, despite having a blend of Yaujta and human biology, were perfectly healthy. Both had their mother’s mandibles, despite having mostly their father’s facial layout, they both looked rather human in that department… except for the mandibles and the large brows. They both had their mother’s large forehead complete with ridges but no dreadlocks as they both had their father’s hair. Both had their mother’s skin colors but their fathers texture, meaning it was very soft to the touch. Sela eleth had her father’s ice blue eyes, but Ryan had his mother’s bright purple eyes.

Jack and Tik eleth couldn’t have been prouder as they cradled their little miracles, neither of them had believed it could have been possible for them to be parents as they were so completely different in biology but here they were. Jack cradled his little daughter proudly as he watched her flex her little mandibles and start to suck her thumb and it melted him inside. Then he glanced over at Tik who was cradling Ryan, smiling at her before leaning down to kiss his life mate. Both of the children had the purest of white auras that he’d ever seen and just like theirs, it swirled around them like fire. Standing in the corners of the room Jack noticed both Sandy and Tan sel eleth both standing proudly with huge smiles plastered on their faces as they observed the family in their most tender moment. Jack smiled at them as they both showed their happiness at the products of their love, “Now we are a true family my mate, bound in blood for all time” Tik said, diverting his attention back to his loving mate. He smiled at her as her words touched his heart, “Let’s teach them the ways of human love and Yaujta honor” he said and this made her smile now, here they had the chance to show them the best of both worlds. This made both Sandy and Tan sel eleth both smile as broadly as they could.

Parenthood turned out to be rather taxing for both of the new parents, human/Yaujta hybrids seem to have all the strengths of both species but none of the weaknesses. For example, they have human grace matched with Yaujta speed, so chasing running toddlers that have learned to run before they can walk was rather fun for both of them.   
Though Jack had to admit it was rather funny when it was Tik’s turn to chase them to watch the Yaujta equivalent of a Scooby Doo cartoon with a massive huntress chasing them from room to room. Though he’d inevitably see one of the twins dash out of a room waving a massive sword around and he’d end up joining the chase.

Having said that neither of them would have traded a single second with their little miracles for anything in the universe. One of Jack’s favorite memories was walking silently upstairs and peering into the twin’s room to find Tik sat between the beds singing a lullaby to them, but the best part was the fact that she was singing it in both Welsh and Yaujta. Since he’d started learning it through his connection to some of the Celtic weapons he had rescued from the bad blood clan ship, he’d started getting visits from Celtic spirits and they’d been teaching him.   
Since Tik loved the sound of the language she’d started learning from him.   
He stood in the doorway listening to the traditional Yaujta lullaby being sung in both Welsh and Yaujta, he’d never felt so happy and proud in his life as he watched this incredibly beautiful scene of mother and children. Plus, Tik’s singing wasn't half bad either, which was a rather pleasant surprise.

 

Fourteen Years Later.

“Remember to breathe slowly, inhale, hold and release, feel the tightness of the trigger, watch him, at this moment you are closer to him than anyone ever has been. Know his movements, predict them, feel the breeze he feels, smell the scents he smells. Feel him and know him and when ready release” Jack said, the big AS50J roared for next to him as Sela fired, the large buck roamer deer didn't even have a chance to lift his head before the massive round blew his heart out the other side of his chest. His six red furred legs splayed as he went full on Bambi learning to walk and collapsed. Sela eleth looked up happily at her father as he grinned down at her proudly, “Nice shot, a clean kill and that was easy seven hundred meters, you’re learning quickly” he said proudly, Sela beamed broadly and drew her mandibles up into the smile. 

“Thanks to your teaching father” she replied, he reached over and stroked her head affectionately and she purred gently happy at the praise from her beloved father. 

“Let’s go and collect the kill” Jack said, Sela nodded happily and they both stood up from their hidden location, throwing off the extra camouflage they’d padded out their hide with, even at only fourteen his daughter was nearly as tall as he was, her body was more distinctly human than Yaujta in its shape. But her muscles were solid just like her mothers, her long blonde dreadlocks trailed down the side of her slim head as she shook them out, her father smiled at her proudly as his eyes took in his beautiful proud daughter and his heart swelled with pride, before he turned and headed over to the dead roamer deer.

Just as Jack had finished bagging all the meat and skin from their deer a distant roar that was immediately followed by a second one was heard. He turned to Sela, who had up until that point been making a small trophy necklace from a piece of the antlers, they both looked at each other and smiled, “Sounds like we’d better go and see what your mother and brother are up to” Jack said and his daughter nodded smiling. They quickly gathered their gear and packed it all up, Sela tucked the little necklace into her pocket sure that her brother would love it, then she turned and hurriedly followed her father into the forest.

Following the trails through the forest they eventually came to a break that opened into a massive set of plains, it was easy for Jack to find his mate where ever she was. His spiritual connection to her always gave him a trail to follow, it was like a trail of white smoke that no matter where she was hiding always led him right to her. Though this sometimes frustrated Tik as she’d always prided herself on her stealth abilities, so the fact that he could see through her camouflage and tactics so easily annoyed her now and then. But it also solidified her love for him in other ways, because she knew that no matter what he would always come for her, a point that he’d proved many times over when she’d got into trouble while hunting only for him to appear out of no-where because he’d felt it and had come running to her aid. 

Jack who was now carrying his AS50J dropped to his knee and scanned the plain with the scope, to his right his daughter did the same with her own rifle, Jack had managed to make his daughter one of these guns by replicating his own gun using the forge as well as some Yaujta tech to improve them both. The results were a pair of lighter, stronger, and far more powerful rifles that could easily pick off a target up to three miles away if you had the skill to use them. Something which he and his daughter most certainly did, she unlike her brother possessed the eye to be a sniper and the tactics better suited her personality. Ryan on the other hand was much more hands on like his mother, preferring to get up close with blades and spears, suddenly Jack stopped, “Got em” he said pointing. Sela followed his point and immediately spotted them out in the middle of the plain, her mother and brother were standing over the body of a fallen Kaux beast, these things were like a cross between a wolf and a boar with really nasty tusks on their face and a lean powerful body. Ryan was holding his spear aloft in stance of victory as he stood over the body and Tik eleth was beating her chest plate with her fist, both Jack and Sela glanced away from their scopes to each other and grinned. Snapping their attention back to the duo on the plains, suddenly Sela froze, “Father to their right I don’t think they see them!” she exclaimed, Jack turned his scope to where his daughter indicated, there were a pair of Manx Rhino approaching the pair of hunters on the plains, these things were massive weighing in at about two tons of solid muscle. Their hides where jet black and solid being nearly impervious to most weapons save for the AS50J’s and Tik’s plasma caster which she, unfortunately, wasn’t wearing at the moment, their heads were long and low with massive horns decorating their faces. Not to mention they also had razor sharp teeth, they were a rarity as they tended to stay in their own hunting grounds which were far from here. But every so often a mated pair would wander off to find a breeding ground of their own. 

“Pauk we have to do something” Jack breathed, his daughter looked at him expectantly she knew her father would come up with a plan. He always did, she always admired how cool under pressure he was. No matter what was thrown at him, he could always analyze the situation and figure a plan out, she had always tried her hardest to be just like him. She was certainly the most level headed of the twins, Ryan was much more like their mother; being all fire and passion. Her father’s eyes glimmered and she knew he’d come up with a plan, he looked at her, “Swap out your ammo for those red tipped bullets I gave you” he said, she looked at him curiously, 

“The ones you told me not to use?” she said, he nodded,

“I told you not to use them unless it was an emergency remember? Well I think this counts” he said swapping the magazine in his own gun and ejecting the round in the chamber before rechambering with red tips. Sela eleth did the same as her father, she extracted the large red tipped bullets from her pouch and looked at them. They were sharp tipped with a coat of what looked like blood over the tip. She swapped the ones in her gun for them and re-cocked it,  
“Ready.” she said looking back through her scope at the approaching Manx Rhinos, 

“Ok you have the one on the right I got the one on the left, range for one mile.” her father said adjusting the dials on his scope, she did the same taking the windage into account and making the appropriate adjustments, “Ok, on my mark fire at its right front leg at about knee height.” her father said, Sela eleth zoned in and got a good view on the massive wide leg of the Manx Rhino, 

“What’s so special about these rounds?” she asked, 

“You’ll see” he replied before starting his breathing exercises, she did the same fully oxygenating her blood, deep breath, hold it, release and repeat.  
“Fire when ready” her father said, and with that both rifles fired in almost perfect symmetry.

The massive red tipped bullets whizzed through the air at incredible speed before slamming into the knees of both Manx Rhinos simultaneously, there was a massive plume of yellow blood and bone fragments blown out of the other side as the hyper velocity armor piercing rounds punched straight through their intended targets. Jack didn't like to use these things as they weren't exactly sporting, and while most people would think that using a .50 caliber rifle wasn't sporting the size of the game, not to mention the viciousness of the predators on their new home world, more than made up the balance. Both creatures roared in pain as the rounds smashed their way through their legs, Tik eleth and Ryan both heard the boom of the massive guns followed by the roars and turned to look, as soon as she saw them Tik eleth put herself between her son and the massive creatures. With their front leg’s hit, the Manx Rhinos were unable to charge their quarry, but they still made a bee line for the pair, “Fire at will choose your targets for weak spots, go for their eyes and their organs!” Jack roared. He began firing on the massive creatures that were threatening his beloved life mate and his son. To his right, his daughter opened up on the other Rhino threatening her mother and twin brother, the Manx Rhinos didn't know what the hell hit them. Round after round slammed into their hides and punched through it like it was made of paper, in fact it was these creatures that Jack had designed these bullets around. They had copper jackets and cores made out of the metal that he'd found on this planet that was like uber strong titanium. In fact, the stuff was so hard when tempered that it couldn't be shaped as it was beyond any tools, even ones made of the same metal. The coating made it so that it cut through the hides like butter, it was similar to coating the bullets with Teflon so that things didn't stick to them and slow them down. 

Suddenly the right hand one went down hard as a round hit it square in the left eye, blowing a hole clean through its head. From his right he heard his daughter squeak in triumph, his own was still moving but his final round sorted that out as the creature turned slightly. Allowing him to put a round straight through its massive heart, blowing it to pieces inside the beasts’ chest. The creature did a sort of very ungraceful twist on its rear legs as it reared up and slammed back down on its back, he breathed a sigh of relief. But as he did he was assaulted by Sela slamming into his side grabbing him and hugging him tightly, “We did it father!!” she exclaimed, he hugged his daughter and smiled, 

“We sure did kiddo” he replied. Then they both stood up and he lofted his rifle above his head and in true Yaujta fashion let loose a mighty roar of victory, which instantly his daughter joined in on doing the same with her own rifle, from the plains came two roars of recognition and shared victory. Jack and Sela eleth picked up their gear and hurriedly made their way away from the woods and onto the plains to join their family.

Jack found his life mate and his son standing over the massive Manx Rhinos as he and Sela approached, as soon as she saw him Tik eleth flew over to him and embraced him, “A good hunt my mate” she said nuzzling the side of her beloved mate’s face. He returned it and gave her the sight that always fluttered her heart even now, his smile.   
“No one pauks with the ones I love and lives to tell the tale” he said glancing at the massive fallen creatures, Tik eleth purred as she nuzzled her beloved male and noticed to their left that Ryan and Sela eleth were sharing their own embrace as the twins greeted each other.

“Awesome shooting sister” Ryan said looking over at the dead Manx Rhino, Sela eleth drew her mandibles up into a smile revealing her distinctly human teeth underneath. 

“Like I’d let anyone or anything take my brother from me” she said, then she remembered the necklace. She broke their embrace and plunged her hand into her pocket and withdrew it, holding her gift out to her brother, “A trophy from my hunt brother” she said. Now it was his turn to smile as he accepted his sisters gift and placed it around his neck. He retrieved something from the pouches on the rear of his armor and held it out to her, 

“It seems that we really do think alike” he said holding out the small but razor sharp tooth from his kill to her, he’d cut and thread it into a necklace just as she had with the antler, Sela eleth smiled broadly as she accepted her brothers gift and placed it on.

Both Tik eleth and Jack smiled at this little display, “The honor of the victory is shared” Tik eleth said, Jack nodded then he glanced at the two Manx Rhinos, 

“Well I think we should get something from those two as well, those horns will make some nice dagger handles, or maybe a sword?” he said to himself thoughtfully looking at the bodies. Tik eleth purred at her mate, she loved just how much he’d embraced the spirit of the hunt and how he was an absolute natural at it. He would have made an exceptional Yaujta, but she was glad that he wasn't as then he wouldn't be the Ack that she knew and adored. All four of them turned and as a family thy began to harvest the kills totally unaware that right at that moment they were being silently observed.

Back at the house later Tik eleth prepared the meats, most of which she stored in their solar powered chilling device for later, she kept some prime cuts out for their celebration dinner that night. She glanced out of the window and caught sight of her beloved male as he toiled at his forge, he was making a set of swords using that metal that he’d found that made exceptional blades that cut like nothing she’d ever held. These thing were far better than even the strongest Yaujta blades, he was making a pair of matching swords for the twins to celebrate their first true hunts. She watched him as he wiped sweat from his brow before rising up to his full height, she noticed he wasn’t wearing his shirt, his sweat covered torso shimmered in the sunlight and Tik eleth felt a growl of desire emanate from her. She had plans to celebrate their victory with him when they were alone tonight, the simplest thought of her male making love to her sent a shiver of pleasure and passion down her spine. Suddenly an ear splitting scream filled the air and was just as quickly silenced, it snapped Tik eleth out of her nice day dream. She dropped the meat she was holding and charged full tilt in the direction of where it had come from.

As he worked on the swords Jack could feel Tik’s eyes on him from the house and it made him smile because he could also feel the desire in her gaze, the longer that he’d been a Dream warrior the more he’d learned to use the abilities that it granted him. At first it had all been mostly used on instinct, but after fourteen years of it he’d learned how the abilities worked and what boosted them or dampened them. It was unusual skill set to have but a damn useful one, he could always sense someone’s intentions even just at a glance now, if he wanted to find someone or something he was always guided right to them. His reflexes were also now lightning fast as he could see things that were about to happen before they did so he actually had time to evade or prepare, it had also taken his and Tik’s love life to the next level. Imagine being able to experience love making from both sides at once, feeling what both you and your partner feel at exactly the same time. Plus, because of his ability to directly connect with someone, he was able to allow her to experience it from her own perspective as well as his at the same time. The first time he’d done this for her, she’d experienced a mutual orgasm from both sides at once and she actually passed out from the intensity of it. But after that it had become something that they did on a regular basis, she’d also never asked him if it felt good for him to be within her ever again because now she knew it did, just as he knew the joy she got from him being there.

Tik had asked him once if he was connected to all things all the time and if so, how the hell did he cope with all the noise?   
He’d had to reply no it wasn't like that, more like some parts of it were dormant until he activated them while others were on all the time. For instance, he could always sense her emotions no matter how far away he was from her, but that was because she was his mate and they were of one heart. But with the kids he had to focus on them for the connection to be made and for their emotions to flood his mind.

Another example he used was what he used when he went hunting, he would switch on one of his abilities that allowed him to sense life around him. This way he could feel all the life around him, but without a focus it was like a mass of indistinguishable noise. You wouldn't be able to tell a deer from a Yaujta, so to block out all the other animals and to focus on one he had to find something like tracks or some fur that would allow him to focus on one particular individual and to track them. Otherwise they simply blended into the background noise of all the other life. So in short, if he wasn't looking for something in particular, they blended in with the other life around them.

Suddenly his mind was flooded with cold malicious feelings and a darkness that he hadn't felt in a long time, it was so intense that he dropped the hammer he was holding and fell to his knees as it over whelmed him. Something was wrong, very very wrong, he could feel fear and pain and as he searched for the source he got a brief flash of his daughter’s emotions. It was pure and raw fear, then he heard the scream, he grabbed the swords and ran full tilt towards the house.

Tik eleth’s heart pounded in her chest as she ran, the voice had been distinctly feminine and had belonged to her beloved daughter. A second set of running footsteps joined her own and Ack burst in through the side door, a pair of swords ready in his hands. His eyes locked on to Tik eleth and he instantly threw her one, which she caught without breaking her stride, both of them charged up the stairs and towards the twins’ bedroom. They both burst in, weapons at the ready only to find the room turned upside down and totally empty, both of the twins were no-where to be seen, “Sela eleth! Ryan! Where are you?!!” Ack yelled but got no answer and he held up his hand obviously trying to feel them. Tik eleth’s eyes quickly roamed the room before coming to rest on something that made her blood run cold, she charged across the room and seized the small object and holding it up for Ack to see, his face said it all. A look of utter horror, fear, and anger crossed his features all at the same time. “Bad bloods” he hissed as he saw the residual black fire of the aura print swirling around the item, Bad bloods had somehow gotten in undetected and taken their beloved children.


	23. Her Fathers Daughter

The first thing that permeated the darkness of the void she was in was a loud beeping noise, at first she couldn't tell what it was or where it was coming from, but something told her to head towards it, not that she really knew where it was or how indeed to move towards it, but somehow it did indeed get louder which told her that she was getting closer.

Suddenly it was like something went click in her head and she opened her eyes, instantly her eyes were assaulted with bright light that send little needles of pain squirming into her head causing her to squint and try to focus her vision. 

Slowly her vision swam into focus and as it did her other senses reconnected as well, she was in a very unfamiliar room and for some reason she was hanging from a set of chains that held her arms rather painfully above her head, she shook at the chains and began to look around in panic, her body also felt rather cold and when she looked down she realized she was as naked as the day she was born, where was she? What was happening? Who would do this to her? And where were her parents?   
Questions shot through her brain in a frenzy as the panic built up, she didn't have any answers but all she did know was that she was scared.

“Well it looks like the little abomination is awake finally” A snarling but rather feminine voice said in fluent Yaujta from behind her, her mother had taught her Yaujta just like her father had taught her ooman and she spoke both perfectly, she tried to turn her head to see who spoke, 

“W-W-W-Who’s there?” she asked with a trembling voice, heavy foot falls announced the unknown person was on the move and suddenly a massive Yaujta female walked around in front of her. 

Sela’s eyes went wide as she saw her, unlike her mother this female was about as far from pretty as you could get, her face was horribly scared and her top left mandible was missing giving her face a kind of lob sided effect, she had dark grey skin that made her look deathly pale and ill, both her eyes were blood red and she had a massive scar than ran straight through her left one, her cranial ridges were all gnarled and twisted to the point that it looked like tree bark on her forehead with what appeared to be some form of horns at the edges. She stood about eight-foot-tall and looked like a walking tank in her heavy black and red armor that covered her body and clanked as she moved.

The large ugly Yaujta female looked over Sela as she hung helpless from the chains that suspended from the ceiling of the room, “Why the males took a liking to looking at you naked I’ll never know, you look like a pauking painted ooman, maybe their intimidated by a real Yaujta woman, who knows?” the female said in a deep gravelly voice, the merest thought of people ogling her naked body made Sela eleth sick to her stomach, she wished her father was here right now, but she was confused by this as well, who was this strange woman?

“Do you know who I am child?” the female asked seeming to sense her confusion, 

“N-N-No” Sela stammered trying to contain her fear, the female drew her mandibles up into a dark and hideous smile, 

“I was the Matriarch of the clan that your beloved parents killed and now they are going to know my pain and my loss, I am going to show them what it is to lose one’s family as I have lost mine they will lose theirs” she said in a venom filled voice, this confused Sela for a moment before a horrible realization sunk in, this vile looking creature must have been the leader of the bad blood clan that stranded her matriarch and her father on the planet where they’d first met. 

Sela knew the story well as her matriarch and her father had both recounted it for her and her brother many times, she always reveled in their tremendous victory over the bad bloods, but it appeared that they hadn't got them all, “Normally I don’t tend to introduce myself to my prey before I strike them down, but this time since my prey is such an unusual one and given that you are an abomination, a living symbol of your Matriarch’s deviancy I thought it would be prudent to indulge my curiosity and speak to you and I must say I am rather impressed by her” the bad blood matriarch said, this confused Sela eleth no end,

“Impressed?” she asked

“Oh absolutely, I never thought that one could take deviancy so far as she has, but you are living proof that I stand corrected, in fact it makes me a little curious about it myself if I’m honest, what must have the sex with that ooman male have been like for her to abandon her own kind as easily as she did? I can only conclude that it must have been mind blowing, maybe when your beloved parents show up I may just take your father as my own and try him out for myself” the bad blood Matriarch said with a dark smile.

Sela eleth could feel her blood boiling at the thought of her father being forced to submit to this vile creature, but she remained wordless as she knew that her father was mighty and powerful, he would never submit to her in body or soul, the bad blood Matriarch seemed to sense her defiance and she clicked her mandibles in amusement, 

“No you know what? I have a better idea, why limit myself to just one species, there must be something to this ooman thing for a full blooded huntress of the Shadow Claw clan to turn her back on her own kind so easily, so why not taste the best of both worlds?” she said. 

Sela eleth looked at her with a dark curiosity wondering just what the hell this mad woman was on about, the Matriarch’s smile was like something out of a nightmare, “Now that I think about it I think I’d like to taste that brother of yours, Ahhh how sweet would it be to taste of that forbidden fruit eh? The joys of youthful energy and exuberance and vigor at my fingertips, he can teach me the joys of ooman sex while at the same time his Yaujta body should be able to take the punishment that I could inflict on him, oh yes I think I’ll make him my hunt trophy and to make my victory all the sweeter, once you are all broken and defeated I’ll make you all watch as I take him to my bed and force him to submit to me for the first time, do you think your deviant Matriarch would enjoy that? Having to watch as her own pup is forced to give her sworn enemy the sweetest of pleasures as I take him right in front of her?” the bad blood Matriarch said in a voice that made Sela eleth feel physically sick, she was dying to scream in this vile female’s face to leave her brother alone, but she didn’t want to give her the pleasure,

“But I am done conversing with you child, let the hunt begin” she said and with a wave of her hand Sela felt a sharp pain in her neck and the world went black again.

Sela felt cold, a cold rushing sensation blasting over her skin at high speed, her eyes fluttered open and she found herself looking at the most beautiful blue sky that she’d ever seen, it was so clear and so close that she felt like she could reach out and touch it, suddenly the fact that her hair was whipping around her head like a veil became apparent to her as did the sensation of falling, turning to her left she realized that the ground seemed to be rather far away, that’s when it hit her, she was falling through the air!

Panic set in hard and the sudden rush of adrenaline to her system cleared her mind in an instant, her first instinct was to panic and to try to flap her arms about, but this only started to spin her, a flap of her other arm countered this just in time to stop her spiraling out of control, suddenly she heard her father’s voice recounting the way that the bad bloods had dropped him onto the planet that he had met her Matriarch on, the words of how he flew through the air hit her and remembering his words like they were instructions she was able to flip herself over and immediately brought her arms and legs out to stabilize herself, quickly she looked under her body and realized that she was wearing the same blinking device on her chest that her father had, she was also wearing the same type of winged suit that he had described to her so quickly she forced her arms and legs straight and held them out, this caused the air to fill up the pockets and her high speed drop stopped and she shot forwards at insane speed.

Steering was a problem as she didn't have a clue how to do it, but again her father’s words came to mind describing how adjusting the angles of one arm or leg will cause you to shoot off to one side or the other, so with a couple of tests she was able to get the hang of steering herself through the air, now all she had to do was look for a place to try and land, that was assuming that the fabric thing, what had her father called it? Parachute that was it, that was assuming that the parachute actually worked and she didn’t end up like most of the other oomans that had been dropped onto the planet. Looking left and right Sela noticed a small clearing to her right and turned towards it, it was going to be difficult but it was all she had so turning she lined up on it and tried to adjust her speed by tilting forwards to go faster and then when she was in alignment tilting upwards so that her speed dropped, suddenly the blinking thing started to beep and this rapidly got faster and faster till there was a loud pop and she was wrenched upwards by an invisible hand.

“Now I know why father hates pauking TREES!!!” Sela yelled to herself as she swung about trying to grab the nearest branch to herself as she hung from the massive tree her chute had caught in, though at least she wasn’t upside down like her father had been when he was in this position many years ago. 

Finally, though she was able to swing herself close enough to catch hold of the branch and pull herself over to it. As she straddled the branch she was able to figure out the clip and unhook the parachute from herself and she felt her weight sag onto the branch as it released her, slowly she moved backwards over the branch keeping it clamped between her legs until she reached the trunk, then slowly she turned and proceeded to climb down until she was on the ground.

Now for the first time since she’d been grabbed in their room she had time to take stock of what was happening, it appeared that she’d been grabbed by the same bad blood clan that had kidnapped her father and her Matriarch, or what was left of them anyway after her Matriarch and her patriarch had wiped out their clan ship, now in the same way that they had hunted her father and her Matriarch they were planning on hunting her, then another thought struck her, what about her beloved brother? Was he here too? if so she had to find him, but first she had to take stock of her situation just like her father had taught her to do, rushing about like a headless Klix lizard helped no-one. 

So quickly she took off the wing suit and looked at what she had, it seemed that the bad bloods couldn't decide on whether she was human or Yaujta when they’d been giving her kit to fight with, her equipment was a mixture of both, she had the same sort of fatigues that her father often wore but at the same time she had a chest plate and shoulder armor like that which her matriarch often wore, on her right arm she had a set of Yaujta wrist blades though when she extended the blades they looked like they were of very poor quality, nothing like the craftsmanship that her father put into the weapons that he made for them all, she sighed at the thought, what she wouldn't give for one of his hand crafted blades right now, those things could cut through just about anything, plus she loved the fact that he spent ages placing runes on the blades, with either Yaujta or Celtic symbols or a combination of both while they were red hot, the finished products were the most beautiful and intricate instruments of death that you could imagine.

The thought of him at his forge making her or her brother a new sword or dagger made her smile, then she remembered the look on her matriarch’s face when he’d given her that duel set of hand crafted shadow metal wrist blades that Christmas, then the memory of her matriarch in that strange looking long red bobble hat with a white pomp om at the end and a white fringe that her father had made her wear after he’d spent ages making it made her laugh completely out of the blue. 

She loved her clan deeply and she knew in heart that they would come for her and her brother if he was here too, all she had to do was find him and then both stay alive until they arrived like the wings of vengeance and justice, the thought of her matriarch and her father riding into battle against their enemies again like the old days filled her heart with pride because now she would be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with her clan and fight their enemies like every true Yaujta craved. 

So quickly she looked at the rest of the kit she had been given, it appeared that they had also given her a mixture of ooman and Yaujta weaponry, they’d given her an AS50 like she and her father favored, but it wasn't one of his specially modified versions and it looked a little beat up, ‘Probably stolen’ she thought, she had about a hundred rounds of ammo for it, but instead of a side arm like her fathers she had a dart launcher and a couple of rounds of ammo for it, now she knew that she’d have to be careful with this thing as not only was the ammo reusable but it had a nasty habit of being tipped with poison, the last thing she found was clipped to her hips above her bum, they’d given her a Yaujta hunting mask.

Sela grinned as she turned over the beat up mask over in her hands, she figured that this was their attempt at a dig at her heritage, they probably figured that she’d not know how to use it being a hybrid, how wrong they were, with that she clipped it to her face and it instantly booted up showing her a thermal image of the world around her, little did they know how diligent her matriarch was in her teachings, they thought she was going to be an easy target because she was a half breed child, little did they know that ever since she was old enough to walk that she’d trained with two of the best hunters in the galaxy and had the best of both worlds in her, she would not let her clan down and she’d show these bad blood pauks what the best of oomanity and Yaujta could really do, with that she turned and headed off into the jungle. 

As she looked around at the jungle as she walked she began to realize that she had been dropped down onto the very same planet that her parents had escaped, it was exactly as they’d described to her in their tales of this place, she had her AS50 in the shoulder as she moved her Yaujta strength made it rather easy for her to walk around with a weapon this big, despite having inherited her father’s size she had inherited her matriarch’s muscle density so her strength was far in excess of an ooman girl of her age, but on the other end of the scale while she wasn't as strong as a pure blood Yaujta female would have been, she was far more flexible and faster as well so her ooman and Yaujta DNA had given her a perfect balance of the two. 

This had often shown when she’d played games like hide and seek with her father as well as tag, he always had a real job catching her because of her speed and ability to change direction on a pin head, she would dance around at him laughing calling him slow old man, but then when he decided to deploy his Dream Warrior abilities the tables would seriously shift as he was able to predict where she was going to go, so he would suddenly change direction and seemingly appear in front of her out of no-where and scoop her up into his arms as she squealed and wriggled in delight as he would inevitably start to tickle her, afterwards she’d always sulk and call him a cheater, but she’d always loved their games.

A sudden rustle to her left caused her to swing around with her weapon in the shoulder, the mask instantly revealed four heat signatures fanning out, given their size and shape she guessed that these were the Calibri wolves that her matriarch had described to her as her and her father’s first victory together, she decided the best way to deal with these things would be swiftly and decisively, so quickly she sighted the first one up and steadied her breath before squeezing the trigger the way her father had taught her, the huge rifle roared and she saw a hot plume kick out of the side of the wolf before it dropped, then she quickly adjusted just as the others started to move and dropped the second one with a second center mass shot, two of them burst out of the grass directly ahead of her, one of which she dealt with a point blank snap shot jamming the massive muzzle into its mouth as she pulled the trigger which caused hits head and most of its upper back to explode with the force of the huge round ripping its way through it, but this impact caused her to drop the rifle and the last wolf took this opportunity and attacked hitting her onto her back on the floor.

Sela quickly grabbed its jaws and held them open just like her matriarch had taught her, then she wrapped her legs around its mid-section before flicking her right arm to cause her wrist blades to extend, with a growl of pure rage she slammed her fist into its side repeatedly causing the massive blades to slice into the wolves flesh, it tried to howl in pain but she still had its moth jammed open, then she managed to score a direct hit on the creatures heart and she felt her blades bounce off its ribs as they punched between them and into its heart, this caused the creature to stop and drop onto of her now dead weight.

After she managed to wriggle out from under the dead wolf she stood up and surveyed the four corpses of the wolves, she’d won totally and utterly on her own without any assistance from her parents, she felt a sudden blood rush hit her and she roared to the sky of her victory beating her chest with her fist just like she’d seen her matriarch do after a victory, then looking down at the dead wolf in front of her she leaned down and tore one of its razor sharp teeth from its maw and held it up, “My first trophy of this place, I’ll make you proud father you’ll see” she said to no-one holding the tooth tight in her fist before placing it in her fatigue trouser pocket, then she turned and picked up her rifle again before carrying on further into the jungle.  
As she walked she realized that her father’s word to her were true about places like this, from the ground you can’t even tell in what direction you are facing, she needed to get to higher ground to survey the area and to make a plan, wandering around aimlessly would only make her life much harder and make her enemies lives easier as she’d be leaving trails everywhere for them to follow, looking up she spotted a large rocky cliff in the distance and decided to head for it, it was a rather long walk and by the time she made it darkness had fallen. 

Looking up at the large cliff she spotted a cave near the top under an overhang, so slinging the rifle over her shoulder she prepped her hands for the climb.  
This is where her brother far excelled over her, he was a natural when it came to climbing where as she preferred to be on the floor in the foliage, but as her father always said needs must when the devil drives, so she climbed up the rock face slowly till she reached the plateau near the top, just as she laid on the grass near the edge catching her breath something shiny caught her eye off to her left, reaching out she picked up the very familiar object and instantly her heart skipped a beat, it was a .50 shell case.

Her energy suddenly restored Sela jumped to her feet and headed straight into the cave mouth, as she descended into the pitch blackness her mask did its job and revealed the cave interior, there on the left was a huge wooden bed covered in animal skins, beyond it up against the far wall was a weapon rack and amour stands, to her right was a large fire pit and a large cauldron like pot, she couldn't believe her eyes, what were the chances!? She actually found the cave that had housed her matriarch during her time here and later her father when they’d met, it was in this very cave that they’d lived together as they’d fought to survive this place and now here she was many cycles later the product of the love that they had for one another fighting the same foes, she quickly turned and noticed the massive log that would have been used to block the door form intrusion and she pushed it into place sealing the entrance to the cave up, before heading over to the massive bed and sitting down on it, the furs still felt soft and luscious as when they would have been first harvested, she lay down on the bed and reached her hands behind her head as her mind spun with all of this, suddenly her hand hit something that felt like skin and she grabbed it, pulling it out and sitting back up she looked at the object in her hands, it was a book of some kind, then something her father had told her pinged into her mind, her matriarch had kept a diary and that she was furious when she’d been forced to leave it behind, could it be this very book was her matriarch’s very diary? Quickly she scrambled around and using her tools and skills she got a fire going in the pit and used it to light the candles which still sat in their holders around the cave, then she removed her mask and opened the book at the first page, then taking a deep breath she looked down and saw the Yaujta letters written in blood, this was it! This was her matriarch’s diary! So quickly she got herself comfortable and began to read.


	24. His Mother's Son

Ryan roared loudly as he squared off against the pack of Calibri wolves daring them to make the first move, they glowed deep red and bright yellow through his hunting mask as they circled him, he held his traditional staff with both hands in the way that him mother had showed him many times, his stance allowed him to move in any direction quickly depending on which of the cursed wolves struck first, it was the pack leader which was the largest of the five wolves circling him that jumped at him first, with a quick side step and a flourish Ryan slammed the sharp bladed end of the staff into the side of the jumping wolf’s head killing it instantly, the next to spring forwards was the pack beta or second in command, this one met an equally swift end as he spun on the spot and twisted the staff with a quick flick of his wrists, the staff slammed into the wolf’s jaws from underneath puncturing its skull and popping out of the top of its head, quick a quick yank he pulled the staff clear, he snarled at the three remaining wolves that were circling him, at the loss of both their alpha and their beta the other three figured out that they’d bitten off more than they could chew with this prey and as one they turned into the jungle and fled for their lives.

“Yeah you’d better run cowards!” Ryan yelled after the retreating wolves, then looking down at the two corpses at his feet he decided it would be prudent to take a trophy or two from their bodies, it was only right that their sacrifice be acknowledged as well as his victory, he took a tooth from both the alpha and from the beta and pocketed them, he looked around himself now at the foreboding jungle in every direction, he couldn't understand what the hell was going on, one minute he’d been in his bedroom with his sister then the next thing he knew he was falling from the sky attached to a parachute, it reminded him of the story that his father had told him of how he’d met their Matriarch. 

He looked around himself, could this be the very same jungle in which they’d met? Did that mean that this was some sort of test? Then as he turned around trying to decide in which direction to head he got the shock of his life, there was a small game trail leading into the jungle and stood in the middle of it was an ooman female. 

She had long blonde flowing hair and pinky white skin like his father, but she had the most beautiful green eyes he had ever seen.   
She was wearing some sort of white flowing dress that seemed to billow around her despite their being no wind, she seemed to be in her mid-twenties and therefore a fair bit older than him, she smiled at him before beckoning him to come with her hand, Ryan stood there in total shock at this beautiful female beckoning him, he walked towards her slowly but as he did she faded from sight and he stopped and rubbed his eyes with his hands before looking again, instantly he spotted her again a bit further down the trail, this time he ran towards her faster as she seemed to be walking away from him down the trail, she wasn't even armed with so much as a stick to defend herself which in this place was utter suicide.

“Hey wait!!” Ryan called as the woman disappeared again only to reappear further down the trail, he didn't know what the hell was happening here but something told him to follow this strange female, so he charged on towards her but every time he got close she would disappear only to pop up further ahead of him, he actually found himself beginning to enjoy the chase and it was almost becoming like a game to him seeing how close he could get to her each time before she disappeared, then after what felt like an hour of sprinting through the jungle the ooman female appeared right in front of him which caused him to slam on the brakes but it was too late and he held out his hands to protect himself from the collision but it never came she just disappeared like a puff of smoke in the breeze, but he still hit something solid and bounced off landing hard on his back.

When he stood up dusting himself down he turned and saw the ooman female silently giggling at him, “Well I’m glad you find that funny” he grumbled, then suddenly he heard another voice that sounded like it was laughing at him but he couldn't figure out where it was coming from, he looked around himself in confusion before returning his attention to the ooman female who was standing there looking at him with a happy smile on her face.

“That wasn't you was it?” he asked confused, she shook her head and then pointed upwards into the tree that he’d run into, he looked up but saw nothing, well not at first anyway, then he saw a shimmer on one of the branches above him, given that he didn't have a wrist comp he couldn't cycle through his mask’s view modes and it was locked on thermal, so although he couldn't see the object in the tree properly he could see the two marks it was making on the tree limb on which it was perched, quickly he dropped into a fighting stance drawing his staff, “Who is there? Identify yourself!” he challenged never taking his eyes off the shimmer, which as soon as it realized it had been spotted jumped down from the tree causing the dirt and leaves where it landed to kick up slightly, glancing around himself to make sure he had room to fight Ryan began to circle his invisible opponent and judging by the hot spots on the ground where the creature’s feet were planted he saw that they were in a stance as well, suddenly it spoke, 

“Who are you?” it said in a soft growling voice, but not in his tongue, it was speaking in perfect Yaujta.

Ryan was surprised by this but his matriarch had taught him her native language singe he and his sister were pups so they both spoke, read and wrote it as well as she did, which was more than could be said for their father who still struggled with it at times which was a constant source of amusement for his matriarch, he found himself deciding whether or not to answer the figure, “I asked you a question and I demand an answer!” the figure snarled, but Ryan was sure that he heard a distinctly feminine tone in the voice despite the aggression, he was about to answer but a sudden roar to his left snapped his attention to that spot, out of the bushes a huge feline with massive tusk like teeth and six legs burst into the clearing, it was covered in bright red fur that made it look like it was on fire and it’s jet black eyes filled Ryan with dread, he remembered his matriarch telling him about these creatures from her time on the world where she’d met his father, she had called it a fire tiger and they were supremely deadly opponents.

Ryan instantly switched his attention to the massive cat and while holding his staff in his left hand he used his right to reach behind himself, the massive cat began to circle him slowly and he moved with it never taking his eyes off the massive feline, it was easily three times his size and pauk knows how much heavier than him, it’s huge claws at the ends of its massive paws were fully retracted and looked sharp enough to cleave through bone with ease, with a sudden flurry of speed and power it charged at him and jumped into a pounce, this was the move Ryan had been waiting for, with a sharp left roll Ryan used a move his matriarch had shown him and at the right moment sent his smart disc straight upwards and into its abdomen, he huge cat roared in pain and when it landed it spun on the spot and charged again, the move had injured it yes but it seemed to have pissed it off more than that, then as it charged it seemed to change direction at the last moment it swiped not at him but at the invisible creature to his left and the swipe contacted with a twang and a screech as the claws his the metal of armor, but the force was more than enough to knock the creature off its feet and send it flying into the underbrush, which instantly disabled its cloaking device, to his utter surprise what appeared to be a Yaujta with jet black skin bounced up out of the underbrush and roared loudly at the massive feline.

Ryan stared at the Yaujta for a moment before realizing that he was looking at a female, she was young probably only about his age but he could see that she was a bit taller than him, but her feminine curves and slender body gave her away, “What the pauk are you staring at!! Keep your eyes on the pauking cat!!” she yelled at him loud enough to snap him out of the trance he’d gone into, he shook his head and focused his attention back on the fire tiger, 

“Right” he said retaking his fighting stance, the female Yaujta moved left so he decided to move right, now it was the cat that was trapped in between them, suddenly with a roar the female charged right at him and jumped with her twin wrist blades extended, she intended to get on the creatures back and surprise it, but that didn't work as the cat spun on the spot and swatted her to one side leaving three massive cuts on her stomach, she howled in pain and the cat instantly responded by slamming a massive paw down on her body pinning her down, the female fought and swung at it with her wrist blades but the cat dodged her attacks easily before grabbing her wrist in its mouth, it was about to bite down and crush her arm when suddenly the side of its head nearly exploded outwards, while all of its attention had been focused on the stricken female Ryan had got around it’s blind side and had launched his staff right at the side of its head with all of his strength. 

The hit was fatal and the massive cat released the female’s arm and moved in a sort of drunken pirouette before falling flat on its side, after pulling his staff free from its head he clicked it back into its carrying form and he turned, then he approached the female who was still laid on her back but was now looking at him, he offered her a hand to pull her up, she looked at it for a moment and clicked her mandibles angrily that she’d had to be saved, but she accepted the hand and he pulled her to her feet, now that the cloak was deactivated and she was right next to him he could see the height difference, she was about half a foot taller than him, “A shared victory” he said which caused the female to snap her attention from the fallen cat to him, she was obviously angry about something, 

“Shared? That was your victory, my failure caused it to almost kill me” she almost spat at him, he heard the embarrassment and rage in her voice he shook his head, 

“Not true, if you hadn't distracted it like that then there’s no way I’d have been able to get close enough to blind side it like that, so if you hadn't done what you did with that rush attack I’d have never been able to get close enough to land a killing blow, so therefore it was a joint effort and therefore the honor and victory is shared” he said with a defiant tone in his voice, she eyed him carefully under her mask and clicked her mandibles thoughtfully at this, 

“Very well a shared victory it is then” she said, then she turned and looked at him, she noticed that he was looking at her stomach and she glanced down herself, there were three large wounds across her stomach where the cat’s claws had sliced through her skin, 

“We’d better treat those” he said, she nodded and reached behind her back and produced a small silver medical kit like the ones his matriarch had shown him, she moved over to the massive tree that she had been sat in before he ran into it, then she sat down and opened the kit, “You never did answer my question” she said looking up at him as she prepared her tools, he realized that she was talking about when she’d asked him who he was, 

“I am Ryan unblooded hunter of the proud clan Mason” he said beating his fist against his chest plate proudly, the female clicked her mandibles as she heard his name, it was a very strange name and it certainly not Yaujta, she was not sure that she trusted this strange male but he had fought alongside her with honor and he had even shared his victory with her so at least he knew honor which spoke well of him, so she decided to repay that honor, 

“Greetings Ryan, I am Shena Black Crest unblooded huntress of the Shadow Claw clan” she said.

After she’d patched herself up Shena stood up and looked at her new ally, he was strange for a Yaujta, while he looked Yaujta there were obvious differences, for one he didn't have normal dreadlocks like her, his seemed to be made from some sort of brown colored fur that was tied into dreadlocks, next was his skin, while it looked like Yaujta it seemed to be smooth rather than the rough texture that she knew, when he’d pulled her up from the floor the smoothness of his hand had surprised her, there was also a difference to the way his body was shaped in that his torso stood slightly broader than his hips giving his shoulders a slightly larger appearance, it was like he was a Yaujta but at the same time it was like he was something else completely, right at this moment he seemed to be looking for something around the clearing they were in, “What’s wrong?” she asked looking at him, he turned to look at her, 

“She’s gone” he said, this confused Shena, there hadn't been anyone else with her when he’d charged straight into the clearing and had run into the tree, then as she was about to ask him he stopped and seemed to be focused on a spot off to their left, she turned to look but there was nothing there but as she looked her visor went screwy, she tapped it and it righted itself, but as she looked back at the spot he was looking at it went screwy again, popping the valves on the respirator she pulled the mask from her face and then looked at it, there didn't appear to be any damage to it, then she looked back at the spot Ryan was looking at again, there was nothing there but at the same time she got a very odd feeling looking at that spot.

Ryan spotted the ooman female on the far side of the clearing, he watched as she walked slowly across the clearing towards them, “Who are you? What do you want?” he asked,

“Who are you speaking to?” Shena’s voice came from right beside him, he wasn't sure when she’d moved but she was now standing right next to his side looking where he was looking, he glanced at her then double took as he realized she was no longer wearing her mask and he saw her face for the first time, his eyes locked onto her face, her face was narrow and very feminine, her skin was as black as the night sky, on her forehead was a tattoo in white ink in the shape of a claw, her eyes were bright silver and shone like quicksilver in her head, she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, “What?” she asked looking around herself nervously as if he’s seen something sneaking up on her, he shook his head to clear it, 

“Errr nothing, but the ooman female please tell me you see her” he said, turning back to look at her, she was now halfway across the clearing and still heading towards them,

“Ooman female? What ooman female!?” Shena said turning to look where he was pointing, but she could see nothing, she turned back to him again,

“Your mask must be malfunctioning, there’s nothing there, take it off and check it” Shena said, Ryan looked back at the spot where the ooman female was stood as she walked towards them, but he did as Shana asked and removed his mask.

Shena’s eyes widened as Ryan removed his mask, he was like no Yaujta she’d ever seen, he had mandibles and bright purple eyes, but his face was vastly different to a normal Yaujta in its structure, on his forehead he had a clan tattoo but it wasn’t one she’d ever seen before, it looked like two crossed rifles with some sort of winged dagger between them and a wreath around them, he had high cheek bones and what looked large sharp looking teeth under his mandibles as well as some sort of fleshy coverings over his teeth, in fact she only saw his teeth when the fleshy things retracted as he hissed at the mask as he looked for damage, she blinked a couple of times as she looked at this strikingly beautiful male stood before her and for some reason her heart began to pound in her chest, what the pauk was happening to her? 

Then he looked back to the spot where she’d been looking before, “Nope she’s still there in fact she’s right in front of us now like less than six foot away” he said pointing, she glanced to where he was pointing but still saw nothing but then as she looked back to him he moved like someone was about to touch him and then to her utter disbelief he went totally ridged and his eyes flashed from purple to a striking ice blue and then onto a sharp emerald green, then his eyes began to cycle through the colors rapidly while he was frozen solid, she reached out to touch him, “Ryan?” she asked but as her hand made contact she got an electric shock and she pulled it back quickly cradling it, then he collapsed unconscious in front of her, “Ryan!!!” she said dropping to his side and she picked him up into her arms but he was all floppy and limp, what the pauk had just happened to him?

As soon as the ooman female’s hand touched his cheek Ryan’s mind was flooded with images, it showed his father on a mountain with the female he’d seen, he saw the female die, he felt her love for his father and his father’s intense pain at her death, then it showed him meeting his matriarch and the joy from both of them, then it moved to their birth and it showed them cradling two babies that must have been him and his sister and he felt the pure unbridled joy and happiness of both his father and his Matriarch, then it showed their lives in a rapid scroll and whirlwind of emotions from all of them, till it brought them up to the point where they’d been kidnapped by the bad bloods, so that’s what had happened, they had been taken from their home by criminals to be used as prey to be hunted to cause their parents pain and sorrow, then he got a flash of his parents now armed to the teeth and on board a ship, he felt the rage and determination from the pair of them, they were coming for them and nothing was going to stop them, that’s when his mind overloaded and the last words he heard were ‘Your Aunty Sandy loves you both dearly and will always watch over you’ then everything went black.


	25. Reunion

Ryan found himself standing in a very white place, everything was white as far as his eyes could see in every direction, the walls, floor, sky, everything was white. Turning in circles to try and orientate himself his eyes managed to pick out something off to his left that wasn't white, or at least he thought it was his left but given the environment he wasn't totally sure, but he decided to head for it all the same, as he got closer he realized it was another person who appeared to be on his knees, he was wearing some sort of white looking armor with a long white cape on the back of it, if it hadn't been for the splashes of gold on it he’d have been camouflaged against the background, “Hello?” Ryan said, at his voice the figure suddenly sprung up from its knees and whirled around till it saw him, this sudden reaction caused Ryan to pause in his steps, the figure was wearing a golden hunting mask so he figured it must be a Yaujta but the voice that spoke was definitely not a Yaujta’s. 

“Ryan!?” the figure asked in amazement, there was something very familiar about it, in fact there was something very familiar about this whole thing and Ryan could have sworn he’d seen this white armor somewhere before, 

“How do you know my name?” Ryan challenged,

“Well you’d think I’d recognize my own son when he speaks” the figure said, as he did he removed his mask as Ryan’s mandibles dropped open as he saw his father’s face behind the golden Yaujta hunting mask, before his brain could process the information his father flew forwards and embraced him tightly, for second Ryan stood there not moving but pretty quickly he realized everything was the same, the feel, the ooman smell, the strength everything, this was without a doubt his father and he wrapped his arms around his father’s torso and embraced him tightly.

When they finally released one another Ryan and Jack stood looking at each other, 

“Are you ok? Is your sister ok? Where are you?” the questions started flying out of his father’s mouth, Ryan nodded,

“I’m ok well I think so anyway, I don’t know where Sela is, as for where I am, I don’t know I was on a planet in a jungle” he said, then he looked around himself before refocusing on his father,

“How?” was the question that came out of Ryan’s mouth, his father shrugged his shoulders,

“I’m not sure, but the only thing I can think of is it must mean that you’re a Dream Warrior as well” he said,

“I’m a Dream warrior like you?” Ryan asked looking confused at this little revelation,

“Trust me I still don’t fully understand how it fully works myself and I've lived with it for quite a few years, but I can tell you how it started, when I was on the planet where I met your mother I started having these visions….” Jack started,

“Visions? What kind of visions?” Ryan asked,

“Ghost’s mainly, people I knew to be dead, but they were reacting to me like they were still alive, then I met this ancient Yaujta warrior named Tan sel eleth……” Jack continued,

“Eleth!? That’s our Matriarch’s name!?” Ryan said sounding surprised, Jack nodded,

“Not as surprised I was trust me, it turned out he was Tik’s great great grandfather, he’d the one who gave me this armor, said it could only be worn by someone honorable and pure of heart, he also awoke this power inside me that I never knew I had, called me a Dream Warrior which I’m still not sure I understand, but basically means that I can see and hear the dead as if they were real people, I can also see people’s aura’s which as far as I can understand it is the life force of every living being, it allows me to see right into their heart and know them better than they know themselves, in short they can’t hide their true intentions from me” Jack said, Ryan looked impressed but he scratched his mandibles thoughtfully,

“Matriarch told me and Sela a story about Dream Warriors once, they were supposedly the most feared warriors to walk the battle field because they can see the unseen, supposedly they do not fear death because they know what’s on the other side, are you trying to tell me that you are one of them? Is that how you do what you do and how you always found me when I was in trouble? And why did you never tell me or really talk to me about it?” he asked, Jack nodded,

“Yup and by the looks of it so are you, sorry for never saying the words to you and explaining it, I always figured you kinda knew especially as your sister knows, as to this place, it’s a sort of purgatory, it’s like a spirit realm that I come to from time to time when I need answers or I really just need to clear my mind, in fact I came here this time to try and summon a spirit to assist me and your mother in finding you, I didn't quite reckon on summoning you here” he said,

Ryan looked really confused as well as a little angry at the revelation that his beloved sister knew about their father being a Dream Warrior when he didn't, “Does that mean I’m dead?” he asked sounding surprised, his father shook his head, 

“I don’t think so, I’m not seeing the aura of death around you” he replied, Ryan looked relived then confused,

“Aura of death?” he asked,

“Well when I see spirits in the walking world I can always tell that their spirits because their aura is different to that of a living person, it kinda looks like smoke or a grey mist around them, a living person has a very distinct color shrouding them” Jack explained, Ryan still looked confused, Jack stepped up to his son and placed his hands on his shoulders, “I’m going to try something, I know it’s a little early but given you are here it looks like your abilities are awakening so I’m going to try and do the same thing that Tan sel eleth did for me” he said, then he closed his eyes and appeared to be trying to focus, suddenly it felt like a bomb went off in Ryan’s head, a huge torrent of imagery and emotions flooded his mind, it showed his father’s life up to the point where they were now, everything from his childhood, to his family that he’d left behind on earth, to meeting his matriarch on that planet, to their bond growing and their love for one another, even some things that he’d rather have not seen in the form of their love making, but his father had said that this is was why dream warriors were feared because they could see everything the heart hides, then suddenly he felt a massive rush and flood of energy through him and when he opened his eyes he saw a white and gold flame surrounding his father’s body.

Jack smiled as he looked at his son as he looked at his hands and arms, “You see it don’t you?” he asked, 

“I’m on fire!” Ryan said looking at his hands, then he looked at him, “And so are you!” he said, Jack laughed loudly,

“So it does take another Dream Warrior to awaken another, I can’t believe I didn't see it before, the fire you’re seeing is aura, it shows you a person’s heart and allegiance, the lighter the color the better, every time a person commits an act like cold blooded murder of the innocent it stains their soul and Dream Warriors like us can see that as its represented in a color shift” he said, Ryan looked at him confused but with a much more relaxed expression in his eyes than before,

“I saw your life” he said, Jack nodded,

“I know and I’m sorry if you saw somethings in there that would have disturbed you but it comes with the gig, I know you probably saw some rather intimate moments between myself and your mother but I am not ashamed about how I feel about her or how much I love her, Dream Warriors can see everything in another’s heart and things like that tend to really stand out, if it makes you feel better I saw everything from yours too so I guess that makes us even huh?” Jack said smiling, suddenly Ryan’s mandibles flared and his cheeks flushed,

“You saw everything!?” he exclaimed, his father laughed out loud and then grinned at him slyly,

“Yup, she’s really pretty you know, must be a like father like son thing, go to an alien jungle and meet a beautiful girl” he said grinning the whole time, Ryan got all flustered and embarrassed which entertained Jack immensely, 

“I don’t look at her like that…….” Ryan started to say till his father held up his hand and he stopped, his father then gestured to himself,

“Dream warrior remember? I saw your memories and the feelings that went with them the same as you saw mine, so I know exactly what you felt when you saw her, don’t you dare be embarrassed at those feelings my son, attraction is a natural and beautiful thing and you are growing up fast” he said smiling, Ryan looked like he might die from embarrassment at any second, then his father’s face went really serious, “It looks like your waking up so I think our connection here is going to be broken any second, know this my son, we are coming for you and we will get you and your sister back from those pauking cowards and we’re going to make sure that after what we do to them those bad blood cowards will never fuck with our clan again, in the mean time I trust you and your sister to conduct yourselves with honor, you give that girl Shena was it?” Jack said, Ryan nodded, “Well you give Shena any assistance you can, you protect her and you fight by her side and you show those pauking cowards why it’s very unwise to pauk with the clan Mason” he said planting his hands on his son’s shoulders, Ryan nodded,

“I will father I promise you can count on me” Ryan said, Jack embraced his son one last time, 

“I know I can because you’re a Mason and Mason’s never let those we love down” Jack said, then Ryan suddenly felt cold and he heard a voice in the distance, 

“Ryan!! Wake up Ryan!!” it said, he turned to look but there was no-one there, then he looked back at his father, 

“You’d better go, don’t worry we’re coming for you” Jack said, Ryan nodded, then with a flash his father faded and the world went black again.

Ryan opened his eyes slowly and his vision swam in and out, but the first thing to become clear was Shena’s beautiful face.   
Shena was leaning over him looking at him with a rather worried expression written on her face, the first thing that Ryan noticed was that she was surrounded by a swirling white fire that flowed around her like a cloak, “Holy c’jit it was real” he said, the expression on Shena’s face changed from worry to relief that he was awake to one of confusion at what he’d just said, 

“What was real? What happened to you?” she asked, he sat up and blinked a few times shaking his head to clear away the swimmy feeling as his senses rebooted, then he looked at Shena who was kneeling on the ground next to him, he could see the white fire aura pulsing around her contrasting with her jet black skin, this only served to make her look even more beautiful in his eyes, 

“Well?” she said looking impatient as he just stared at her, he drew his mandibles up into a sort of embarrassed smile, 

“I saw my father” he said, Shena looked confused, then she looked around them,

“What? Where?” she asked,

“Not here, it’s difficult to explain and I sure as hell don’t know how to explain it, but he showed me a load of things and apparently I’m a Dream Warrior” he said, Shena’s mandibles dropped open in shock then she jumped up and away from him, he looked at her surprised at her reaction,

“Y-y-y-you’re a Dream Warrior!?” she exclaimed, he nodded slowly, then he got to his feet and dusted himself down, 

“Apparently” he said, 

“My Matriarch told me a story about Dream Warriors, she told me that they can see through worlds and see the dead” she said, Ryan nodded,

“Yeah that’s what my father told me too, he said we can see the spirits of the dead and speak to them like they were normal living breathing beings” he said, then Shena looked thoughtful and rubbed her mandibles, 

“Is that what you saw then when you saw an ooman female? Was she a spirit?” she asked, Ryan nodded,

“Yeah I think so, when she touched me I saw these things from her life, all these experiences, thoughts and feelings like it was being downloaded into my mind, Shena moved closer to him now but she was still being cautious, 

“Why an ooman though? Why would an ooman female spirit seek you out?” she asked curiously, Ryan scratched his mandibles thoughtfully, this was a good question, but then the memories he’d seen filled his mind again and he saw the answer,

“I think she was my father’s mate before she was killed in a battle on their home world, but she’s never lost her love for him and now she follows him like a guardian watching over his life and the lives of those he loves” he said, then as he looked at Shena he saw looks of surprise and revulsion and confusion passing over her face, “What?” he asked looking at her,

“Your father mated with an ooman!?” she asked with obvious shock in her voice, he smiled at her confusion and shook his head,

“My father is ooman” he said calmly, Shena’s mandibles dropped open as this bombshell exploded in her brain.

“W-w-w-what did you say?” Shena stammered looking at Ryan, her eyes searched his features for some sort of hint that he was just pulling some sort of prank on her, but his features remained the same, 

“My father is an ooman, my matriarch is Yaujta” he said calmly, 

“T-t-t-that’s not possible! No Yaujta would willingly mate with an ooman!!” Shena exclaimed, 

“Well I’m living proof that you’re wrong” he said with a darkness and an anger in his voice obviously from her questioning his heritage, 

“You’re an abomination!!” she suddenly yelled then she turned and Shena ran off into the jungle leaving Ryan standing there with a really confused look in his face.

‘How could she be so stupid? Of all the people she had to find on this pauking planet she had to find some half breed abomination, to think she almost started to like him as well! His matriarch was a race traitor and had laid with a dumb prey species of all things! What the pauk was she thinking?’ all these thoughts swirled through Shena’s mind as she ran through the jungle with tears burning her eyes, she felt so totally stupid for beginning to care about that male, she couldn’t believe that she’d actually thought that he was attractive!! What the pauk had she been thinking? right now she was totally unaware that at that moment she was being observed by someone from the canopy.

As she was running her mind was in such a whirlwind that she didn't look where she was going and suddenly her leg was whipped up from under and she shot upwards into the tree, “What the pauk!!” she yelled as she was flipped upside down, then she spotted a shimmering figure on the ground next to where she’d been only seconds ago, it sparkled with electric before it decloaked and became visible, her mandibles clicked in both anger at being caught and fear at what had caught her, there stood a rather large bad blood male looking right at her, his armor was pitted and scared from various battles that he’d fought and his body was a patch work of ugly scars and his colors were a sickening green grey mixture.

“Well that was no fun, I thought you Shadow claw clan bitches were supposed to be expert hunters and tough? Well I guess if I can’t have fun hunting you I’ll have to take my fun from you some other way won’t I?” the bad blood male said with a sickening leer in his voice, Shena felt sick to her stomach at what he was insinuating but also a cold rage at herself for being caught, 

“I am Shena Black Crest unblooded huntress of the Shadow Claw clan and when I get down from here I will show you what I can do!!” she roared, the male started laughing at her,

“Oh you have that right, you will show me what you can do, but not in the way you think” he said with a sickening leer in his voice, then with a swipe of his wrist blades he cut the rope that suspended her from the trees and she fell straight down on her head with a thud that jarred all of her senses with pain, she tried to move but her body was shaky and barely able to react, the male slammed a large foot down on her back pinning her down, “Don’t worry it won’t hurt for long young one and who knows by the time I’m done you may even enjoy it” he leered again, Shena had never felt so angry and scared in her life, this sickening excuse for a male was about to violate her and strip her honor away, she watched helplessly over her shoulder as he leaned down on her further and she felt him run a hand over her behind, “Hmmm it looks like you’re definitely from prime breeding stock” he said as his touch made her feel physically sick, suddenly there was a whizzing noise and something passed over her head at high speed, she also felt something warm land on her back.

The bad blood male suddenly roared with pain and anger and jumped back from the stricken Shena, something landed on the floor to her left and she glanced at it, to her utter surprise it seemed to be a hand, “Get the pauk away from her you pauking coward!!” a voice roared full of unbridled rage, it took Shena a second to recognize the voice, it was Ryan.

Ryan had chased Shena through the jungle, though her cruel words had shocked and angered him he couldn't let her go off on her own in a dangerous place, his father’s words had echoed in his mind as he’d stood there and watched her go, “You’re a Mason” he’d heard, then he’d sighed and kicked the massive corpse of the fire tiger in anger and frustration, as much as her words had hurt him it would be against every fiber of his being to let her go like that, plus he remembered something his matriarch had said to him when he and his sister were young, “There will be those that do not understand you and will treat you with disdain and cruelty because of what you are, but you are the offspring of love and honor and it will be up to you to show them this, if they will not understand you pauking make them” she had said, he guessed this is what she meant and now it was up to him to make Shena see that as well, so off he’d gone into the jungle hot on her heels.

When Ryan arrived to see Shena pinned down by a bad blood male he’d been ready to storm into the clearing in full rage mode, but his father’s words hit him first, “Before jumping into a situation always gain an advantage first no matter how angry you are, stop, take a breath, analyze, then act” he’d said and Ryan felt this was one of those times, so he’d silently watched and waited for an opportunity to strike, the bad blood male was massive compared to him and he was also far better armed, he could see the dual plasma casters on his shoulders from where he was, he could also see the jet black aura swirling around him as he leaned down onto Shena, then he saw him reach down and run his hand over Shena’s bum and his rage boiled over but he also saw and opportunity, taking his smart disc out he aimed and sent it spinning towards the bad blood, the hit was perfect and it took the male’s hand off at the wrist sending a spray of his blood onto Shena’s back.

Unfortunately, the smart disc embedded itself in a tree and didn't return to its sender as they usually do so Ryan was going to have to make do with his staff, he twirled it and it extended to its full size as he stood facing the enraged bad blood male, “I’m going to tear you apart and piss on your remains abomination!!” the bad blood male roared,

“My name is Ryan, unblooded hunter and son of Tik eleth and Jack of the proud clan Mason, if you label me an abomination because I am the product of a union based on mutual love and honor then I pity you because you have clearly never experienced either of those things” Ryan roared back, the male looked at him in total confusion, he couldn't understand why he wasn't scared of him, he’d expected the ooman in him to react to the mere sight of him and to run in fear but this is not what he was seeing, the air around this young male seemed to ripple like heat rising from him as he looked at him, then he spoke again, “I promise before all the gods and the spirits here present that while I still draw breath and my heart still beats you will not lay another hand on that female, you will not harm her or sully her honor I will not allow it!!!” Ryan roared standing tall and proud as he faced down the massive bad blood male, suddenly a shadow emerged behind the male, it was another Yaujta male but this one was dressed in white armor with a long white cape, instantly Ryan noticed the grey swirling fire around him and he realized it was a spirit, this had to be Tan sel eleth his great great great grandfather, he stood with his arms folded over his chest looking at the bad blood, the look on his face was one of utter contempt and disgust, then he turned to face Ryan and he walked towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder, his mind was instantly flooded with Yaujta fighting techniques, 

“Show this coward what an honorable warrior can do and show him death” he said in a deep gravelly voice, Ryan nodded and then turned his attention back to the male just in time to see him rush him with his wrist blades raised.

To Ryan it felt like time had slowed down, he watched as the male swung the wrist blades in and arc towards him and he was able to easily side step out of the way which caused the male to sail past him and hit nothing but air, suddenly he became aware that the white fire surrounding his body had grown into a raging inferno and he felt energy rushing through him, is this why Dream Warriors were so feared? Because they could see things before they happened? Then he turned and saw the male swing at him again, this time he used the staff to deflect the male’s hit away before using the blades to slice through his inner elbow now exposed by the deflection, the male roared in pain as his arm dropped uselessly to his side, suddenly Ryan saw both of his plasma casters pop up and turn, he rapidly dodged around the shots as they fizzed past him scorching the air as the bolts which looked like they were moving in slow motion passed him harmlessly by, with each dodge he moved closer and closer to the male who seemed to be growing more and more desperate with each step his foe took, then out of no-where the male reared up to kick at Ryan but in the slow motion world what Ryan was in he saw it coming a mile away and instead of being kicked flying he simply twisted out of the way and then brought his staff up and sliced through the rear of the male’s knee cutting the tendons and with a quick flourish did the same to the other leg before the male was able to retract it.

Shena watched in utter surprise and shame as Ryan made his declaration and then began to fight the bad blood male, she couldn't believe what was happening here, she had said such vile things to him and yet here he was defending her, why? Why was he doing this? But then something he’d said clicked in her head, it was a name and she recognized it for some reason, Tik eleth, she knew that she’d heard that name before, then it hit her like a ton of bricks, Tik eleth was the daughter of Mak tesha one of the Shadow Claw clan leaders! This little revelation rocked her to her core as she watched him fight for her.

Then a sudden rush of energy and anger flooded through her fueled by her confusion, this restored her body temporarily and she found herself able to stand up, she watched as Ryan effortlessly dodged around the bad blood male’s plasma bolts and then swipe both his legs crippling him when he tried to kick him, now the male was on his knees in front of Ryan who simply pulled both of his plasma casters from their mounts and threw them to either side of him, then he turned and looked at her, “This scum’s life belongs to you as it was your honor he was going to sully, decide what his fate is” he said with a rather cold voice that for some reason stung her like a knife to her heart, but then as she saw the defeated male who was going to rape her anger flashed through her again and she charged towards him and plunged her wrist blades through his chest and straight through his heart.

Ryan watched as Shena killed the bad blood male, he saw the figure of his great great great grandfather smile and nod his approval of his honorable deed by giving the male’s life to the one who he had tried to dishonor, then he balled his fist against his chest and bowed an act that Ryan returned as the ghost faded back into the shadows, as he released the bow he saw Shena standing facing him with her wrist blades dripping with Yaujta blood, “Are you really Tik eleth’s son?” she asked in a quiet voice, he nodded as he looked at her,

“How do you know of my Matriarch?” he asked,

“Because she’s the daughter of one of my clan’s leaders” Shena said in a voice filled with confusion and rage, it was at that point Ryan realized this revelation had just rocked her to her very core and he understood why, he could see that she’d always been taught just like his matriarch had been that Yaujta must not lower themselves to cavorting with other species and must remain pure, so to now find out that the daughter of one of her clan’s most respected leaders had done that very thing and the product of this union had just saved her life and protected her honor had just blown her understanding of her world to pieces, he took a step towards her and she retreated a step, but he took another one and another and another, she mirrored his movements till her back hit a tree and she could go no further and he was stood right in front of her, he took his mask off and looked right into her eyes, the brightness of the purple of his eyes made her gasp, there was a real fire in them that she couldn’t deny and suddenly her mind was filled with guilt and shame at how she’d reacted towards him when she’d found out what he was, “I-I-I-I’m sorry” she whispered as she hung her head, looking away from his eyes, 

“So you should be” he replied, her head shot up with a flash of rage but when her eyes met his there was something different and it stopped her from lashing out and regret instantly filled her mind again,

“I shouldn't have called you those vile names, or run away from you like that” she said quietly again, 

“I forgive you” Ryan said calmly, Shena’s eyes popped open wide as she searched his face for a hint of deceit but there was none, 

“I am something which goes against everything that you have been taught, something that in your world should not and could not exist, so it was only natural that you would lash out and react the way you did, so I will forgive your ignorance this time and I will ask you to simply judge me based on my actions, use what you see and what you feel to guide you and not what you have been taught to believe, keep an open mind and you will see that there is far more to this life than the narrow path you have been taught to tread” he said, Shena looked confused by his words and by his compassion and empathy, these were not Yaujta traits and a true Yaujta who had been insulted in the way she had insulted him would have killed her on the spot, but something in his words appealed to her and she nodded smiling at him, then he returned her smile and stepped back from her allowing her to step away from the tree, then he extended a hand towards her, as much as her head was screaming that he was an abomination that shouldn't exist and that his very existence was an insult she couldn't deny that his actions were those of a being who fully understood the ways of honor, he had stepped in and defended her honor despite the fact that she had hurled some vile insults at him and now he had forgiven her for them and was offering her a hand in friendship, so she decided right at that moment to trust him and to listen to what he had said, while she knew she couldn't fully abandon what she’d been taught she would try to accept him and like he had said to keep an open mind, so she took his arm and they shook, “Right then let’s see what we can get from this pauk and see if we can find my sister” Ryan said and Shena smiled and nodded at him, a small voice spoke in her heart she still couldn't believe that a half breed could be so good looking.


	26. Family Values

Jack came out of his trance and shook his head to clear the fogginess away, the first thing he saw was Tik’s concerned face looking right at him, “Well? Did the spirits help? Do you know where they are?” she asked in rapid fire mode, he smiled at her broadly which surprised her,  
“What?” she asked,

“They’re where we started out” he said, this instantly confused Tik and she frowned,

“Where we started out?” she asked and Jack nodded,

“Yeah they’re on the planet where we first met, where the bad bloods were hunting us……..” he said. before he had chance to finish, Tik was at the controls of the ship and began plotting a course back to the planet where this had all started, “And there’s more” Jack said stepping up next to her, she glanced at him expectantly while she worked, “It turns out that Ryan is a Dream Warrior too” he said. Tik’s hands froze at the controls and she turned to look at him slowly, “I spoke to him Tik, I spoke to our son in the spirit world” he said placing his hands on her broad shoulders, her eyes looked up at him questioningly and he instantly knew what she needed to know, so he began to explain what he’d seen and what Ryan had said.   
As he explained Tik’s face went through a full range of emotions, from rage that the bad bloods were still hunting her family, to relief that her son was ok, to confusion that he’d met a girl there of all places. This manifested itself as both happiness before turning Tik eleth into full on momma bear mode as she grumbled things like that if the girl broke her son’s heart she’d tear hers out and show it to her. 

Then she turned and looked at her beloved Ack, “What about Sela eleth?” she asked, he shook his head, 

“Nothing yet, but I’m willing to bet that where we find one we’ll find the other, you know those two nothing can separate them for long. They always had that ability to know when the other needed help and where they were even when they were little kids.” he said smiling, this caused Tik eleth to smile as she remembered some of the mischief their two little miracles managed to get themselves into when they were young. Like when he was six cycles old, Ryan had picked a fight with a Whelp beast which was like a cross between a large dog and a goat. All horns and a vicious temper, Sela eleth had instantly known about it and took off out of the house like a plasma bolt to rescue her brother with her father in tow. 

Though when they’d found him, Ack had nearly torn the Whelp’s head clean off with his bare hands for hurting his son. Though the Whelp had been lucky he’d gotten there first and not her because she’d have torn it in half for injuring her precious offspring. She looked up into the eyes of her beloved ooman mate and he smiled at her, “We’re going to get them back my love and when we do we’re going extract a price in blood for every injury they've suffered and we’re going to put a stop to this once and for all” he said, she took his hands and growled in agreement. Ack had always known how she felt and what to say to her and when, even before his Dream Warrior side had awoken. Since he had become a Dream Warrior, he always knew what she was thinking and feeling and sometimes it was downright creepy, but she wouldn't have changed a single thing about him.

The only thing she was working on changing was his life span, as Yaujta live a lot longer than oomans and there was no way she was going to accept going the rest of her life without him by her side as he was irreplaceable. “There’s also one other thing I think you should know my love” Ack said suddenly, she looked into his sapphire blue eyes questioningly,

“The girl that Ryan has met, she’s Shadow Claw clan” he said, Tik eleth’s eyes widened as this news hit her, suddenly she felt like she’d been full on punched. The thought of having to deal with her old clan was not a pleasant one.

 

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Shena asked as pushed a branch out of her way, Ryan turned back to look at her,   
“Not a clue, but I can see a trail through these trees like it’s lit up for me” he said pointing,

“What do you mean?” she asked not understanding, Ryan pointed to the trail ahead of them,

“Well do you see there where that trail intersects with three others?” he asked, Shena looked where he was pointing and nodded, 

“Yeah what about it?” she asked, 

“Well I can see this trail, it’s like a grey smoke along one of the paths, it’s like it’s telling to go this way” he said sweeping his hand over it tracing the trail with his finger, Shena tried to look where he was pointing, but she saw nothing but grass and dirt. 

“I don’t see anything, do you think it’s something to do with you being a Dream Warrior?” she asked, he shrugged his shoulders,

“No idea, I really don’t know much about this whole Dream Warrior thing except for the fact that my father is one and he seems to see things that aren't really there and they guide him. I never really knew what it meant before, but when I was unconscious I was sent into a place that had nothing but white and I saw him there” he said,

“You saw your father?” Shena asked sounding surprised, Ryan nodded as they turned and continued on the path, 

“Yeah it was he that awoke this ability that I now have, he also told me some of what I can do” he said, Shena looked at him with interest now,

“So what can you do?” she asked.  
“Well I’m by no means an expert on this obviously, but it appears I can see someone’s allegiance by seeing an aura that surrounds them, the lighter the color the better” he said, 

“Aura?” Shena asked, Ryan nodded,

“It’s like a fire that surrounds you and the color denotes how good of a person you are” he said. She looked at him curiously, 

“Do you see that when you look at me?” she asked, he didn't answer just nodded, “What color is it?” she asked,

“White” he said without even hesitating. She cocked her head to one side,

“Is that good?” she asked, he nodded,

“The lighter the color the purer of heart you are apparently” he replied.

“So you’re saying there’s a white fire surrounding me right now?” she asked looking at herself, Ryan nodded,

“It swirls all around you like an inferno” he said looking at her properly now, suddenly she felt rather shy being under his eyes, but it wasn't unpleasant. She actually kinda liked it when he looked at her, then she shook her head to clear those thoughts out. 

“So what else can you do?” she asked quickly to make him talk some more so she didn't have to think, 

“Well apparently it also allows me to see into a person’s heart and to see their life although I have no idea how that works” he said, this made her freeze for a second,

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well it’s kinda hard to explain, but like when I was in the spirit place with my father and he awoke whatever it was that was dormant inside me that makes me a Dream Warrior. I saw his entire life like I was there living it, I felt what he felt and saw what he saw… even things I really didn't want to see” he said,

“Like what?” Shena asked curiously, Ryan suddenly looked all embarrassed and quickly mumbled something before quickening his pace, “Sorry I didn't catch that?” she said, smiling behind her mask at how his face seemed to flush red when he was embarrassed which she figured must be something to do with the ooman in him. It was rather a pretty color, he sighed heavily, 

“I saw him mating with my matriarch” he said in a heavy voice, that stopped dead Shena dead in her tracks as she realized what he’d just said, now she felt embarrassed for him. 

“Oh… Wow, yeah I can see why that must have been awkward” she said, he hung his head and rolled his shoulders.

“You have no idea trust me” he said trying to block the images from returning, then a thought suddenly hit Shena hard.

“Wait a moment you can see into a person’s heart and know what their thinking and feeling!?” she exclaimed with a sudden flash of both embarrassment and fear in her voice, he stopped and looked at her curiously. 

“Yeah so?” he asked,

“D-D-D-Does that mean you've seen inside me too?” she asked, he shook his head, 

“No, like I said at the beginning I’m not sure how that works. It’s not like I get a constant update or can read your mind or anything, from how my father triggered it I thing it requires physical contact and a lot of focus to fire it up. Him using it on me seemed to trigger my own abilities, so right now I really don’t have a clue how it works properly and I don’t think I will until I use it for myself for the first time” he said.

Shena breathed a rather visible sigh of relief, for a moment she’d been terrified that Ryan had been able to look into her heart and had seen how she felt about him. Because right now these feelings were confusing the hell out of her, not to mention angering her. One part of her brain kept pointing out how attractive and good looking he was, it was like a constantly updating list of his good points. Like his amazing eyes, his exotic looks, his strong muscular frame, his hunting prowess, his fearlessness, his dedication to the ways of honor, the list went on and on. The other side of her mind was screaming that he was an abomination, a half blood and that his very existence was a crime against nature. It also pointed out the fact that she could be put to death for just associating with him, but then the other part of her mind would chime in and say that it wasn't his fault that he was born. It wasn't like he asked to be born a half-breed or for any of this, that he was just trying to do the best he could with what he had. So far he seemed to be doing a rather good job considering, then the other part of her mind screamed at her for defending him and this was met with a counter argument of why not? He’d defended her, she’d never felt so confused and lost in her life, but she was rather glad that he couldn't just peer into her mind and see all this whenever he wanted. The thought of someone being able to take a stroll through your thoughts and feeling whenever they wanted was rather terrifying.

“It does seem to give me a rather large boost while in combat too, it’s kinda like everything slows down and I can see what going to happen before it does. Like I can see the moves my opponent is making and have time to be able to counter them in advance” Ryan was saying, his voice snapped Shena back to reality and she thought on this for a moment,   
“So that’s how you were able to beat the bad blood so easily?” she asked. He nodded,

“I think so, it was like everything slowed down to a crawl and I could see what he was going to do so I was able to act accordingly” he replied. Shena clicked her mandibles thoughtfully, 

“Now that does sound useful” she said, he nodded,

“But I don’t think it’s without its price” he replied, she looked at him curiously, 

“What price?” she asked with concern in her voice which made him smile under his mask. 

“I feel physically drained, like I've burned myself out by running a full-on hunt with no sleep or something, everything just feels spectacularly laggy” he replied. This concerned Shena greatly as if he wasn’t combat ready he could wind up being a hindrance rather than a help, plus she also found herself being concerned for his wellbeing. 

“Why didn't you say something earlier!!? We've been walking through this jungle for hours and we haven’t taken a rest!” she exclaimed catching hold of his arm, 

“I’ll be fine, I’ve dealt with tired many times, you ought to try going on a long-distance hunt with my matriarch when she’s hot on the heels of her prey. She just doesn’t stop, so I’ll be fine, plus it’s getting dark and we need shelter so we don’t have time to rest” he replied.

“But…..” Shena started but Ryan stopped her,

“Look I appreciate the concern but I’ll be fine, now let’s see where this trail leads us” Ryan said and with that they continued following that path laid out for them that only he could see. 

 

As she lay on the old bed Sela eleth flipped through the pages of her matriarch’s diary, it made for pretty fascinating reading. The poems that she’d read had really surprised her as she’d never pictured her matriarch as a poet, but surprisingly they were rather good. The more she read the more she felt that she got to know her matriarch, it was really deep stuff and at some parts it was rather graphic especially when she’d been describing her feelings for her beloved Jack.   
Sela was surprised at how quickly the transformation had occurred, from devout follower and believer in the Yautja way to what she herself had described as a deviant. Which is what she’d called herself when she’d been outlining how her own people would see her for what she’d done by falling in love with an ooman. But the depth of her matriarch’s feelings for her father couldn't be denied and it touched Sela eleth’s heart to know just how deeply and completely her love for him had consumed her heart. She made loads of references to just how females of her species could benefit from knowing ooman love the way she did. She described the sheer power of it and the way that it drove them from being a ‘Dumb prey’ species into a full on force of nature. She told the story of how Jack had saved her from the kiande amedha, and had performed actions that should have been impossible for him, but he’d done them all the same and had saved her life. Then the text followed her decent into her love for him and she vividly described her sexual activity with her beloved Jack which made Sela eleth flush bright red as she read the words that graphically described what they done for one another. But for some reason she couldn't look away and felt compelled to read each and every word. Once she was done she found herself feeling rather hot and bothered by it, she sat there on the bed with some rather vivid imagery in her head that she was trying to chase out. She knew that her parents had a healthy and active love life as she’d heard them more than once, well at some points she was pretty sure that every living thing on their home planet had heard her matriarch as she wasn't exactly quiet. Then suddenly she heard movement from outside and it snapped her back into reality, suddenly the large wooden piece that was securing the doorway began to move and she instantly dropped into a fighting stance and prepared to defend herself.

A shape entered the cave and looked around, instantly Sela eleth sprang at it with her wrist blades extended trying to get the killing blow in early while her target was off guard. Much to her surprise her target turned in a split second and moved like nothing she’d ever seen, the sheer speed was unbelievable and she felt herself being caught in midair and her own weight being used to spin her and throw her back into the cave. By pure reflex she grabbed hold of whatever it was that had thrown her and her weight pulled it over and down on top of her, she kicked and snarled trying to fight loose and tried to stab into it with her wrist blade but whatever it was had hold of her wrists. Suddenly she saw another shape entering the cave at a run and dropped into a fighting stance and came right at her to engage, suddenly a very familiar voice roared “STOP!!!!” from under her. The second shape screeched to a halt right next to her, she looked down at the shape under her and was greeted by a very familiar shape of a Yaujta hunting mask very close to her own, “Sela eleth!! Is that you!?” the voice asked. Then it struck her like a kick to the heart, the shape she’d been about to try and stab to death was none other than her own beloved brother Ryan.

“R-R-R-Ryan is that you!?” Sela eleth stammered looking at the mask, it moved in a nodding motion, 

“It’s me my beloved sister” he said in an emotional sounding voice, quick as a flash she retracted her wrist blades and threw her arms around her brother’s neck, 

“Thank the goddess you’re ok” she said with a cracking voice as she fought back tears of joy at being reunited with her brother. Slowly she got off him and helped him up to his feet, 

“How did you find me? Are father and our matriarch with you?” she asked rapidly looking around until she spotted the other shape and then stopped, “Who’s this?” she asked looking at her curiously. 

“I am Shena Black Crest unblooded huntress of the shadow Claw clan, it is good to meet you” the stranger said pressing her fist to her chest in a traditional Yautja greeting. Sela did the same,  
“I am Sela eleth unblooded huntress of the clan Mason” she replied,

“You are Ryan’s sister then I assume?” Shena asked, Sela nodded. She looked at her brother who was looking around the cave in awe, 

“What’s going on here Ryan?” she asked her brother, he turned to her but before he could speak he suddenly started to collapse. In a split second both Sela and Shena were at his sides catching hold of an arm each with a united cry of “Ryan!!” as they steadied him, he shook his head, 

“Sorry must be more drained than I thought” he said,

“You need to rest” Shena said and with the help of Sela guided him over to the massive bed and sat him down. Sela looked at them curiously,

“What’s going on Ryan?” she asked again as she looked from the new comer to her brother, he looked up at her smiled under his mask, 

“Where to begin? This is gonna be a rather interesting story” he said,

“Well I’m not going anywhere” Sela said defiantly, her brother sighed and slowly began to bring her up to speed.


	27. The Next Generation

Sela eleth sat there in a stunned silence as she listened to her brother recount what had happened to him since arriving here, at parts Shena interjected and added bits and pieces from her own perspective. She vividly described the battle between Ryan and the bad blood who had captured her, Sela noted what sounded like awe in her voice as she described the speed at which her brother had moved and the power he had displayed.

Pretty soon Ryan was done with his story and he turned to Sela, she looked completely stunned at the revelation that her own brother was a Dream Warrior like her father. Little did either of them know but the odds of such a thing was astronomical. A fact that was not lost on Shena however, who was at this moment watching the twins with interest.

“So what about you sister? Have you learned anything?” Ryan asked, his voice snapped Sela out of her stupor as she went over it all in her head. She looked at him and nodded, 

“Yeah, I know the face of the one who brought us here and why” she said, this stunned both Ryan and Shena. 

“Who!? Who did this to us!?” Shena asked with obvious anger in her voice, Sela shrugged her slender shoulders, 

“I don’t know her name but I’ll be damned if I forget her face, one seriously ugly female Yautja. Looks like she took a fifty to the face and lived, she was the Matriarch of the bad blood clan that runs this place. They took my brother and myself so they can hunt us and kill us so they can get back at our parents who destroyed their clan ship before we were born.” Sela said, Shena looked thoughtful at this. Then Ryan piped up,

“Well that explains why they took us, but why did they take you?” he said looking at Shena, she shrugged her shoulders,

“I don’t know for certain, but I have a theory” she said. Ryan and Sela both cocked their heads in the same direction at the same time, seeing how synced up the twins were made her smile. She sighed heavily, they’d been good enough to tell their stories so it was only honorable that she tell them hers. She moved over to the end of the massive bed that Ryan was laid on and sat down, then she began to tell them her story.

It turned out that Shena had been another planet with her uncle, he’d been taking her on her first hunt as her parents were busy with clan business. They’d been in the process of stalking a Rexnor lizard when they’d been ambushed by bad bloods. The mixture of sadness and pride was obvious in her voice when she described the way her uncle had thrown himself at the bad bloods while telling her to run and save herself. He’d apparently managed to take down at least four of them before they’d managed to take him down. Unwilling to run from them, Shena had stood and fought with her uncle and had managed to take down one of them before they hit her with knock out darts. The next thing she remembered was waking up in free fall towards this planet, she’d been trying to survive on her own ever since, that was a month ago.

Ryan reached out and patted her on the shoulder plate, “Your uncle sounds like an honorable man, he fought bravely and no-one can ask for a better death than defending the ones they love.” he said, his words surprised Shena and she smiled at him. This interesting half breed really did understand the ways of honor, but as she looked at him she found herself starting to gaze into his mesmerizing purple eyes. She quickly gave herself a mental slap as she felt her heart begin to pound in her chest, 

“So, what is this place anyway?” she said quickly getting up from the bed letting Ryan’s hand fall from her shoulder plate, Sela noticed this reaction and smiled inwardly. It didn't take a Dream Warrior to notice the embarrassment in Shena’s voice and she could only guess as to the cause, 

“It’s our matriarch’s old hide when she was stuck here” Sela said proudly, Shena spun around so quickly her dread locks whipped around her which Sela noticed made her brother’s eyes widen as he watched her.   
“This was where Tik eleth survived this place!?” Shena said in a surprised voice. Sela cocked her head to one side, 

“You know of our matriarch!?” she said sounding surprised,

“Ryan told me of her” Shena said quickly, Sela noticed the hesitance in her voice,

“That’s not it, you know more about her don’t you!?” she challenged looking at Shena, who was now standing holding her right arm with her left hand behind her back while twisting her foot in the dirt like a child being scolded. Then she nodded, this surprised even Ryan. 

“What do you know?” Sela growled menacingly, thinking that Shena was hiding something from them. Shena looked at them with a worried expression on her face, she watched Ryan sit up from his laid position and focus his attention fully on her. She could feel his purple eyes boring into her. Shena really didn't want to anger her new allies so with a heavy sigh she pointed at the head board of the bed, both Sela and Ryan turned their attentions to it and looked at the large piece of wood. It had been placed at the top of the bed to prevent the make shift mattress from falling off, and to prevent the occupant banging their head on the stone wall. The first thing both of them noticed were the large claw marks all over it, both of them realized that they must have been made by their matriarch during some rather vigorous activity with their father which caused them both to blush bright red. As they did this, Shena noticed both their faces change color and this caused her to stop pointing and to watch them in utter fascination. No Yaujta could change color! But both of these two could, and she had to admit the red color really highlighted Ryan’s eyes.   
Another mental slap later Shena pointed again, “Not the marks the carving” she said. The twin’s eyes followed her pointing finger to the center of the head board, both of them noticed a small carving that looked very familiar. Then Sela’s eyes widened, “That’s the crest that’s on our matriarch’s head right next to the Mason crest.” she exclaimed, then Ryan’s eyes widened as he suddenly realized where he’d seen this crest recently. His attention snapped back to Shena and low and behold in bright white ink there it was, tattooed to her head. Shena nodded as she realized he knew what this meant, 

“I’m from your Matriarch’s old clan” she said quietly and both the twin’s mandibles dropped open.

The twins spent the next hour by barraging Shena with questions about their Matriarch’s old clan and what it was like, she did her best to answer all their questions and she was quite happy to talk about her clan. Both of them could hear the pride in her voice, but something began to bug Sela eleth, some of her answers mirrored what was written in her Matriarch’s diary. Things like not being taken seriously if you were shorter than ‘normal’ females, it was only at that point that she realized that Shena was the same size as they were. Which wasn't right considering she was a pure blood Yaujta, their ooman genes meant that they were smaller than the pure bloods. But Shena was the same size they were, this must mean that she had the same problems her Matriarch had faced being shorter than her peers. She also noticed that when she was talking she kept glancing at Ryan to see if he was watching her. This actually made her smile as she could also see her reaction every time their eyes met and when she looked away, it was obvious that she’d taken a liking to him. But she seemed to be wrestling with this and guessed that it had something to do with him being a half breed and her being pure blood. From reading her Matriarch’s words she knew how deep prejudice ran in Yaujta society, she almost laughed at the irony of her fighting her own prejudice towards Ryan in her mind the same way her Matriarch had fought hers over liking her father.

After Shena was done, both Sela eleth and Ryan felt like they had a much better understanding about Yaujta society and what their Matriarch had gone through before meeting their father. Sela noticed her brother looked absolutely drained, “Get some sleep brother you look like you need it.” she said, he didn't say anything, just nodded. He moved over into the corner of the bed so that he didn’t take up the whole thing, there was easily room for all three of them in this thing. No sooner had his head touched the make shift pillow than he was fast asleep, Shena found herself smiling at this. Sela noticed her watching him, “He share’s that with our Matriarch, our father says she could sleep on a bed of nails.” she said, Shena looked first embarrassed that she’d been caught looking by his sister, then confused, 

“Why would anyone want to sleep on a bed of nails?” she asked, Sela shrugged her shoulders,

“Must be an ooman thing” she said. Then for some reason both of them burst out laughing and before they knew it they were both rolling up, it was a mixture of relief and happiness that drove them both. Relief that they were not alone anymore, and happiness that now they stood a chance of being reunited with their loved ones. Once they’d finished laughing and had dried their eyes, Sela turned to look at Shena and found her looking at her sleeping brother again. She smiled at her, “You like him, don’t you?” she asked. The words startled Shena, 

“N-N-N-No, what makes you say something like that!?” she exclaimed embarrassment painted all over her face, Sela smiled at her slyly, 

“Because I don’t need to be a Dream Warrior to see what your eyes say, just female” she replied. Shena didn't reply at first just looked incredibly embarrassed that Sela had seen through her so easily, 

“He fascinates me, and not just because he’s a Dream Warrior, I called him some vile horrible things when I first found out what he was and ran away from him. But he still came after me and saved me from that bad blood who was going to rape me, watching him fight for me after I did to him. It made me start thinking that some of the things I've been taught might be wrong, I mean I've always been taught that true Yaujta are pure and even thinking about being with another species is a foul crime. But here’s a half blood male who fought for me even after what I did, for no other reason than to defend my honor. He understands honor better than me and I’m a pure blood” she said in a very quiet voice with a look of pained confusion written all over her face, Sela eleth stood up and dusted herself off. Then she moved towards Shena and placed a hand on her shoulder. She held out something to Shena who looked at the book in confusion, “This might help you to understand him and maybe even yourself” she said smiling. Then she turned towards the doorway, Shena instantly turned to look at her, 

“Where are you going?” she asked, Sela eleth clipped her hunting mask on, 

“Hunting, we’re going to need some food” she said. Shena made to get up to join her but Sela eleth held up a hand, “I got this, you two need some rest after the day you've had, so just catch up on your reading and do me a favor by keeping an eye on my brother. If he wakes up he’s gonna want to go charging off after me when he finds out I’m gone, and someone needs to stop him” she said. Shena smiled at Sela, 

“Ok” she said, Sela eleth nodded and headed out of the doorway before moving the wood back into the doorway. Shena took a look at the book in her hand, then at the massive bed. Ryan was up against the wall on the far left so there was plenty of room on the thing for her to sit down. And it didn't make sense for her to sit on the floor when there was a perfectly good bed now did it? So, she climbed onto the bed, sat down next to the sleeping Ryan, opened the book and began to read.

Sela eleth smiled as she strolled through the forest, following the directions that her Matriarch had written in her diary, towards the pond that the things her matriarch called shimmer lizards lived. She was thinking about what her Matriarch had written in that diary and what sort of effect it was going to have on Shena when she read it. She felt a little embarrassed knowing that Shena was about to read her Matriarch’s most intimate thoughts and observations about things like making love with her father and how absolutely incredible it had been. But it had been a paragraph right towards the end that had made her give it to her, where she’d mentioned that she wished she could give this diary to another female Yautja and let her read it, then maybe she’d understand that there was another way and what the depths of true love were really like. She even joked that it might start a revolution amongst Yaujta females, or it might start a spate of abductions from the ooman home world by love hungry Yaujta females eager to test out ooman love for themselves. But she’d hoped that her words would somehow reach at least one female and touch her in a way where she might just question her beliefs enough to be brave enough to try it. Sela eleth had seen this potential in Shena, given the females obvious blooming feelings for her brother and the also obvious conflict in her mind as the Yaujta discipline tried to reassert itself. This book would most likely be enough to tip her over the edge, “Mission accomplished mom” Sela eleth said using the ooman reference for her Matriarch while smiling to herself.

Shena Black Crest was enraptured as she read the written thoughts and feelings of Tik eleth as she’d lived alone on this planet, she felt her pain and her loneliness in her words as she read. She smiled as she read the poetry that had been written, and she had to admit that Tik eleth was a rather good poet for someone who wasn't a scribe. Then the diary’s theme seemed to change drastically as she started to write about this ooman warrior that she’d seen, it detailed her stalking him and then watching him as he single handedly took down a giant lizard that easily could have destroyed half the jungle if it had wanted. Her admiration for this ooman was obvious in her language, then it went on to detail her interactions with him as they fought the Calibri wolves together. It detailed how he seemed to fully understand the ways of honor and had paid her compliments, which had meant a lot coming from a warrior of his obvious status.   
As she read on Shena could see Tik eleth wrestling with her conscious as she tried to fight off her growing feelings of attraction to this ooman male. Then the details of the battle between them and the kiande amedha and how he’d fought for her and had claimed his love for her in a loud and proud voice, before rescuing her and dragging her out of there and healing her wounds despite the feat being physically impossible for him. Somehow, his love for her had powered him to do the impossible and now her resolve had crumbled, she knew that she was madly in love with him and she was preparing to tell him.

Shena was transfixed as she read the details of Tik eleth’s confession of her feelings to her Ack and how he’d accepted them and given her his… As well as the amazing pleasure he’d given her that night, she detailed the feeling of joy that she’d never experienced in her life because of this beautiful male whom she loved with all of her heart. The next few parts described not only their battles with the kiande amedha queen, but it also graphically detailed the first time they’d mated, or made love as oomans called it. Tik eleth left no details out when describing the sheer joy, pleasure, and heart and mind melting love she’d experienced at the hands of this amazing alien male. It also detailed her sadness that it had taken a male of a completely different species to show her what true love was and what it could accomplish. She felt truly sad that it took a member of another species to show her this and how much of her life she’d wasted on members of her own species. When all this time her heart had been with another race. It also detailed how sad she felt that her prejudice had nearly stopped her from experiencing the sheer blissful joy and happiness, as well as how happy she was that she’d overcome this and had let it go. It also described how happy she felt in the arms of her ooman mate, and how she’d burn the entire universe to protect him and show him how much she returned his unconditional love for her.

Shena closed the book and sat there in a total stupor, the words of Tik eleth were still rattling around in her head. One part of her felt flushed and hot under the collar at the vivid descriptions of the mating between them, it sounded like a thing of sheer beauty and wonderment that she would never get to experience with one of her own kind. But at the same time her words on the feelings of anger and disdain she’d felt at the hands of her own kind perfectly mirrored Shena’s own feelings, right up until this point they had been buried in her mind, but they’d always been there. Tik eleth’s experiences had also been her own, she herself was considered small by Yaujta standards and she had received the exactly the same treatment at the hands of her peers back on the clan ship. Males wouldn't even look at her because she was small and females looked at her with disdain and dislike, that’s if they chose to look at her at all. Mostly they just ignored her and pretended she wasn't even there.

This meant that Shena had to work twice as hard as everyone else to even get noticed, and even then it was barely an acknowledgement, more of a pity thing. ‘Look at the dwarf trying to achieve normal people things’ was one infuriating comment that stuck out in her mind. They’d deliberately gone out of their way to give her the tasks that would be harder for her to achieve because of her size, but she had triumphed every single time. But it was to no avail as she had still gained no respect or honor from her peers.

Shena Black Crest laid down on her back and stared up at the cave celling as the words of the diary bounced around in her head, then one thing stuck out and she glanced to her right at the sleeping form of Ryan. He had not treated her in that way at all, in fact he had been nothing but kind and honorable to her since he’d met her despite the way she’d treated him. Did that mean that Tik eleth was right? Were there far greater things outside of her clan? Had she been looking for respect in the wrong place all this time?   
These were only a few of the hundreds of questions swirling round in her head as she felt her eye lids getting heavier and heavier, before she knew it she had fallen into sleep herself.

 

Sela eleth had been relatively successful on her hunt, she’d managed to find the pond that her Matriarch had described in her diary and lo and behold it had been swarming with those shimmer lizards. Finding the pond had been the easy part, catching the lizards had been the hard part as they were damn fast and had a tendency to scatter when she struck at one of them. But she’d managed to get three of them, that should be enough meat for the them. As she walked back to the cave, she wondered how her brother’s new friend was getting on with her matriarch’s diary, it made her smile as she thought about her brother possibly finding love in a place like this. Plus, the irony of this being the exact same place and circumstances that their parents had found each other, here they were fourteen years later and now it was happening to them. Though she had to wonder where her hunky human was hiding?  
As Sela eleth opened the cave silently to avoid waking her brother up, the sight that she saw upon entering made her mandibles drop open before breaking into a massive smile. There, laid on the bed with the diary next to her was Shena Black Crest, but it wasn't that that surprised her. It was the fact that she was wrapped up in her brother’s arms.  
They were laid face to face with their arms wrapped around each other, holding onto one another rather tightly with their foreheads almost touching. She had to admit they looked adorable together, and they were such a good fit as well. Sela closed the cave as quietly as she could, but it managed to wake the two of them up and the reaction was rather extreme.

As they slowly and tiredly opened their eyes, both Ryan and Shena became aware of a face rather close to their own, and suddenly they both became aware of what felt like arms wrapped around them both. Instantly, they snapped awake and saw each other in an extreme close up. But before they were able to pull away, the intense focus that Ryan had placed on Shena directly in front of him triggered his abilities. His eyes instantly flashed from purple to silver and a whole rush of images and feelings flooded his mind, the fact that his arms were around Shena’s slender waist provided the conduit for him to see her heart and mind directly.

Shena burst out of Ryan’s grip and severed the connection which caused his eyes to return to their normal striking purple color, she looked at him with a horrified expression on her face. She instantly knew what had happened as she’d felt him in her head as well, she hadn't been able to see his thoughts or feelings. But she’d felt his presence in her head, “Y-Y-Y-You saw didn't you?” she stammered looking at him. He looked at her with sad eyes and nodded his head as her memories of her childhood swam through his mind, as quick as a flash she grabbed her mask and shot past the rather stunned Sela eleth. Who was standing there holding a string of dead lizards in a stunned silence, then she looked at her forlorn brother who sat on the bed in a stupor, 

“Well don’t just sit there like a pauking Muppet go after her!!” Sela said using her father’s favorite insult, Ryan burst off the bed and ran out of the cave in hot pursuit of the highly embarrassed young female Yaujta.


	28. New Love Old Problems

As he burst out of the cave Ryan couldn’t see Shena Black Crest anywhere but as he focused of finding her his vision flashed and he saw a trail of grey smoke leading down the side of the cliff and into the trees.  
Rapidly Ryan made his way down the cliff and followed the trail as it wound through the trees, he stayed on the ground as he moved as he’d never felt comfortable leaping from tree to tree no matter how many times his mother had tried to teach him, he’d always found it easier and faster to run on the ground as he moved rather than bouncing between the branches. As he ran what he was going to say to her started to play through in his head, the first thing he was going to do was to apologize for the intrusion into her mind, he hadn’t meant to do it but since they were in intimate contact it had triggered his abilities when he’d focused on her, but there was one thing that made him smile as he ran following the trail, he’d discovered that she found him attractive.

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“Stupid, stupid, stupid” Shena Black Crest said to herself as she bounced from branch to branch of the trees, she didn’t know where she was running to but all she knew was she wanted to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment. She couldn’t believe that she’d been so stupid as to fall asleep and cuddle up to him, but she couldn’t understand as to why she’d done it in the first place, she had never cuddled up to anyone while asleep in her life and not to mention the fact that she was such a light sleeper that a Viltar rat could fart in another room and she’d wake up, so how she’d managed to end up wrapped up in his arms without being woken up totally confused her.

Finally, she stopped running and found herself stood in a tree overlooking a massive clearing, from here she could see the sky and all the stars in it, she could also see two of the planet’s moons rising high into the night sky, she huffed at the beautiful scene as right now her feelings were in a very dark place because she knew that the male she liked had seen into her mind and had seen her heart laid totally bare, right at this point she knew that he was in the cave in a total rage because of what he’d seen, she sat down on the branch and proceeded to burst into tears, just when she’d thought she might have found her way in the pages of that diary and how it might be alright for her to be attracted to someone who wasn’t fully Yaujta, for the first time she actually felt like her differences might be alright and not the bad things that she had been led to believe, but he had to go and see her raw feelings like that, her whole heart laid before him and before she had a real chance to understand her own feelings, what must he think of her right now?

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Little did Shena Black Crest know that right at that very moment Ryan was stood directly below the tree she currently occupied looking up at her, in the moonlight he could see her black skin shining like polished Jet, she was by far the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his short life.   
As he’d been running he’d been rehearsing what he was going to say to her when he found her, but now here presented with the sight of a crying female in a tree and knowing that he was the cause all his carefully prepared words went right out of the window. He felt terrible knowing that he was the reason that strong proud Yaujta huntress had been reduced to tears, he’d never meant to see her most intimate thoughts and feelings without her permission, but at the same time he couldn’t help what he was, he had to make this right, but how?

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Shena Black Crest didn't hear Ryan approach until he was on the branch right next to her, his sudden appearance completely startled her from her tears, at first she thought it was someone coming to attack her and she readied herself for battle, but as soon as she saw his bright purple eyes looking at her in the moonlight she realized who she was sharing her branch with and went to flee from him again, “No! Shena please wait!” Ryan said in a voice that sounded so mournful that it froze her solid, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to invade your mind like that, it was an accident!” he said in a very apologetic and mournful voice, her eyes roamed his face for signs of deceit but found nothing, but locking on to his eyes she saw genuine regret in them, she un-tensed her muscles and looked from his face to the branch below her, suddenly she found herself rather angry, but not at him at herself but without any target to vent her rage it got channeled at him, 

“You had no right!” she yelled, Ryan looked surprised at the raw anger in her voice, but having seen the inner workings of her mind he quickly realized that this was her defense mechanism kicking in, he realized now that he’d seen her mind he knew how it worked, he’d seen the pain and humiliation she’d suffered at the hands of her peers and teachers and so many others in her clan for not being tall like other females, he’d seen how hard she’d had to push herself, he’d seen all her triumphs being swept away like they were dust before the more pitiful achievements of bigger females simply because they were bigger and more feminine than her, it stank of total injustice and it infuriated him that someone as wonderful as her was judged so harshly simply because of something outside of her control like her height, all those things she’d done and achieved and for her to be treated like that was nothing short of criminal, it was no wonder she was angry and then just when she felt like she was beginning to be accepted as herself by someone, this happens, he had to make it right for her, but how?

“I know and I’m sorry, I didn't mean to honestly I was just so startled when I woke up with you in my arms that when I focused on you it triggered the ability I couldn’t control it” he said in a quiet voice barely above a whisper, Shena flexed her fists open and shut looking like she might strike out at any moment, 

“How much did you see?” she asked in an anger laden quiet voice, Ryan’s first instinct was to try and calm her by claiming that it wasn’t hardly anything, but as his eyes saw the fire in her bright silver eyes he knew he had to tell her the truth, 

“All of it” he said in a quiet voice, the embarrassment driven rage in her eyes was obvious for all to see, “I saw the pain you feel every day as you get passed over for larger less accomplished females, simply because they’re taller than you, I saw the humiliation you feel every time you get sneered at by a male, I saw the pain you feel when you parents pretty much ignore you over your brothers and sisters, I saw how hard you’ve trained and how hard you’ve worked to get to where you are” he said.   
The rage in Shena boiled over and she lashed out screeching loudly as she did, she swung at Ryan but he easily countered it catching her hand and deflecting the blow, she kicked out at him and he twisted out of the way easily before it came near him, then as her other hand came in as a slap he caught her wrist and pushed her backwards up against the trunk of the tree with surprising strength, before she had chance to strike out again he caught her other wrist and held them both to her side with his face mere inches from hers, the fact that he’d so easily bested her only served to fuel her rage and she struggled against him, but then he did the most surprising thing that anyone had ever done to her, he hugged her.

Shena Black Crest proud unblooded huntress of the Shadow Claw clan was so completely stunned by this act she froze solid, she could feel Ryan’s breathing against her neck and his heart beating through his chest as their skins were pressed tightly together, she turned her head slowly to look at him as he held her, in his eyes where she’d expected to see pity she saw something totally different, rage.  
“What was done to you is despicable, to judge someone’s worth based solely on something as petty as height is nothing short of pathetic, I have seen what you have done, I have seen what you have accomplished and it’s nothing short of remarkable” he said in a voice laced with a righteous anger, his words stung like a blade to the heart but they carried the most weight because he had seen how hard she had struggled and she knew that he understood, 

“It’s not fair” she said in a shaky voice, he nodded as he still held her against him,

“It isn't and you know what else is not fair?” he asked, she looked at him and shook her head, 

“The fact that I took that pain from you when it was yours and yours alone, those struggles were yours and those fights were yours and I've experienced them through your eyes and I know now how I can make it right” he said,

“H-H-How?” she asked in a stammering voice, he drew his mandibles up into a smile,

“I’ve seen your heart so it’s only right that you see mine” he said, she furrowed her brow, but then her curiosity got the better of her,

“Is that even possible?” she asked, he nodded,

“I’ve seen my father do it to my mother many times, when she was going into a rage or storming around the place or they’d just had an argument, he’d simply reach up and touch her, but before I didn’t know that he was a Dream Warrior and only now I understand what it was that I was seeing, he was letting her into his mind, I’m not as experienced as a Dream Warrior as he is but I’d do anything to make up for the injustice I’ve done to you” he replied, his words surprised her greatly,

“Why?” she asked and he cocked his head to one side obviously not understanding her question, “Why would you do something like that for me?” she asked more clearly, he smiled again, 

“Because I care about you and I can’t stand to think that my actions have hurt you, my honor demands that I make it right” he said, her eyes flew open as wide as they would go at his words,

“Y-Y-Y-You care about me!?” she stammered, he nodded,

“But rather than tell you in words why don’t you let me show you in actions?” he said, her breathing quickened and her heart hammered in her chest, these were words that she’d never in a million years that she’d though she’d hear from a male, especially not one she liked, she swallowed hard and nodded her head, “Alright, show me” she said, Ryan nodded and he brought his hand up and placed it to her temple, his skin was so smooth and soft and his hand was so warm, then he closed his eyes and she felt something happening, it was like there was someone in her mind with her, then in a massive rush she felt her vision flicker and in huge spool Ryan’s life and experiences were flushed into her mind, it was like watching a huge broadcast in extreme fast forwards but at the same time it was like time seemed to stand still and she saw each and every experience in full exquisite detail, she knew everything he did and felt everything he did, in that second she knew exactly what it was to be a Dream Warrior and why they were so feared, in those seconds she saw the entirety of his life and she also saw the first time he’d seen her, she felt the way his heart had beat faster, she actually felt the rush of adrenaline and endorphins flood his mind as he looked at her, she looked at herself through his eyes and heard the thoughts that crossed his mind as he looked at her body and one word stood out ‘Beautiful’, she knew exactly how he felt about her and it brought tears to her eyes, even after only knowing her for only one day he was in love with her so completely that it made his heart ache when he looked at her and she actually felt it and what scared her more was that his feelings exactly matched her own, is this what Tik eleth had meant when she talked about meeting your soul mate? Two hearts that match each other so perfectly that when they meet for the first time it’s like they've always been together, maybe this love at first sight thing wasn't a myth at all, for her and for him it seemed to be a complete reality.

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From the ground Sela eleth watched the exchange between her brother and Shena, she saw quite clearly Shena’s reaction as her brother’s entire life was shown to her in exquisite detail as he did his Dream Warrior thing, she knew exactly how intense that was as her father had done it for her once, she’d gone off in a huff because she felt that brother was being favored over her and she’d gone off to sulk about it, in typical fashion her father had found her in no time at all and he’d just sat with her not saying a word, she’d gone off on one shouting at him calling him all sorts of names and getting rather emotional, she’d accused him of favoritism and all sorts of other things, then without saying a word he’d simply reached out and touched her cheek and instantly his emotions and memories had been transferred into her mind in a flash, everything from her birth right up to their birthdays, celebrating ooman Christmas and her giggling at her Matriarch because her father had made her wear something called a Santa’s hat, to his joy at watching her open her presents and playing with them, right up to her first day of training and up till now, she cried out her heart in his arms for the next hour, after that moment she’d never doubted his love for her again and she knew that both he and her Matriarch would kill the universe to protect them, so she knew how Shena was feeling right now, Dream Warrior emotional transference was a very powerful thing and she would be experiencing all of Ryan’s emotions raw and unchecked, but one thing was for definite, she would be left with no doubts about how he felt towards her.

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After the transfer was complete Ryan collapsed, he still wasn't used to his Dream Warrior abilities and using something as powerful as emotional transference really took it out of him, but before he went down Shena caught him, he felt himself being drawn into a tight embrace and he saw an extreme close up of her beautiful face she looked worried, “Ryan!” she exclaimed, he managed to regain his footing and stood up with a bit of a sway, 

“Sorry that really took it out of me” he said with a weak smile, he looked at Shena’s face again, she had tears in her eyes but was smiling broadly with her mandibles drawn right up,

“I-I-I-I had no idea you felt that way about me” she said in a rather happy sounding voice, he nodded,

“I saw how you felt towards me with no buffers and I felt it was only fair that I showed you the same in return” he said, Shena pulled him into the tightest hug he’d ever received save for the time his Matriarch had arrived the time his father had saved him from a Whelp by tearing its head off with his bare hands, she’d nearly crushed him to death with her hugs and he actually remembered that that was one of the only time he’d seen her full on cry because she’d been so scared that he’d been hurt or worse, now it seemed to be Shena’s turn to crush him to death with her feelings.

A sudden cough from underneath them made them separate from their embrace and they looked down to see Sela eleth on the ground, “If you two have finished maybe we should head back” she said in an amused but happy sounding voice, both Shena and Ryan looked at each other embarrassedly but then they both smiled broadly and both burst out laughing, in fact they both laughed so hard and so loudly that Sela eleth begun to suspect that they had both gone crazy as a result of sharing each other’s emotions, but finally they both climbed down and joined her on the ground.

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The three of them walked back to the cave, as they walked Sela eleth noticed that at some point along the way her brother and Shena had begun holding hands, she smiled at the cute scene, it was amazing how quickly that emotional transfer ability could clear things up and also forge new bonds, though she felt she probably shouldn’t be surprised as it left no margins for errors as it showed in no uncertain terms exactly how you felt for a person, right at this point Shena had no delusions about how her brother felt for her and he knew exactly how strongly she felt for him. It also appeared that her Matriarch’s diary had had a rather profound effect on her and had helped her get some perspective on how she felt, she just really hoped they weren’t planning on trying out anything she’d read in some of the later sections or it would be her running out of the cave in embarrassment this time.

Once they were back at the cave Ryan sealed them in with the massive wooden block as Sela eleth went over to where she’d left her catch, “Would you like to help me prepare food Shena?” she asked, Shena looked at her and then at the lizards she’d hunted, she seemed surprised that she was being offered food after what she’d done, she nodded happily,   
“Great, here’s a little tip for you if you plan to have a long life together with my brother, whatever you do don’t ever let Ryan prepare food, his cooking’s far more lethal than any poison, in fact I’m sure that our father was considering using Ryan’s porridge to tip his bullets once” Sela eleth said with a sly grin, Shena grinned broadly but shyly at the same time at the mention of being paired with Ryan for life, 

“Hey my cooking’s not that bad!” Ryan protested as he walked into the main cave, Sela looked at him and raised an eyebrow, 

“Pauk off, father once used that stew of yours to frighten off the gremlin rats that kept eating the vegetables in our Matriarch’s garden, damn things were so scared of what it did to the one rat that was stupid enough to eat it that they never came back” Sela said with her hands on her hips, 

“Wasn't my fault that father didn't tell me that those roots weren't for cooking” Ryan grumbled dropping down on the bed in a huff, Shena giggled behind her hand at this,

“What happened to the gremlin rat?” she asked curiously, 

“It dissolved from the inside out” Sela said and now Shena full on started belly laughing at Ryan as he laid back on the bed grumbling to himself, Sela eleth grinned at her brother,

“But as it happens I’m a rather good cook if I don’t say so myself, our father taught me the art of field cooking and I can find food pretty much anywhere and I’m rather good at it if I don’t say so myself, our father is a fantastic cook our Matriarch always gets really excited when she finds something exotic for him to turn his attention to” she said,

“My uncle taught me the art of field cooking and he was really good at it too” Shena said smiling proudly as she remembered the food her beloved uncle used to treat her too after his hunts, 

“Well then you can be my helper and Ryan can stay there on the bed safely away from anything edible lest he taint it by getting to close” Sela said in a teasing voice, 

“What is this take the piss out of Ryan day?” he grumped from the bed, then both Sela and Shena looked at each other and instantly both burst out laughing, for a second Ryan watched them in a huff, but then he found himself joining in on it and pretty soon the three of them were laughing so hard they could barely stand, they just felt so relieved to have each other that it had just come tumbling out in the form of laughter, but little did they know the trials that the three of them would have to face in the next few days, but for now they just laughed and for the first time since they’d all got here all of them felt happy.


	29. The Hunt Begins

Ryan in typical Ryan fashion fell asleep first, after the delicious meal that his sister and Shena had prepared for them combined with the day he’d had it was just too much for him and he was out like a light.  
Both Shena Black Crest and Sela eleth who were both sat on the bed grinned at his sleeping form, “He’s always been like that” Sela said quietly, Shena turned her attention to her and widened her smile, 

“I know” she said, Sela slapped her own head,

“Oh yeah the emotional transference” she said remembering what her brother had done with her in the tree, Shena turned her attention back to the sleeping male and just watched him for a few moments before Sela broke the silence, “You know how he feels about you now don’t you?” she said, Shena looked really embarrassed but she nodded, 

“Yeah and I still can’t believe it, I've never met anyone like him, he’s an amazing male, he’s strong, fearless, selfless and honorable” Shena said, Sela eleth was nodding at everything her new friend was saying, “It still shames me that I said such vile things to him when I found out what he is, but despite that he still came after me and saved me from the bad bloods” she said with a cracking voice, 

“That’s Ryan all over, he can’t stand injustice and dishonor” Sela said, Shena nodded,

“Watching him fight was like watching a force of nature, he was this flurry of rage and beauty, I just wish there was some way to make it up to him” Shena said looking Sela right in the eye, 

“Are you sorry you called him those things?” Sela asked, Shena looked surprised at the question, 

“Of course I am” she replied in a very apologetic tone, Sela eleth nodded approvingly,

“Then he knows that too, he was in your mind remember?” she said, Shena looked a rather embarrassed at that fact and she glanced at the sleeping male, Sela eleth smiled at this, “If you really want to make it up to him I know a way” she said, Shena snapped her head round so fast her dreadlocks whipped her,

“What is it!?” she asked quickly, Sela eleth smiled broadly,

“Give him a chance” she replied, Shena’s eyes widened,

“Y-Y-Y-You mean accept his feelings?” she asked, Sela eleth nodded,

“You know how he feels for you and he knows how you feel for him, so just go for it and give him a chance” Sela said, Shena looked really worried and Sela eleth watched her shift around in her seat, 

“My clan would disown me” she said in a very disheartened and quiet voice, Sela eleth moved closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to look up at her, 

“Pauk them, if they’re too narrow minded to see your true worth and your true strength then you can join our clan” she said, this caused Shena’s eyes to widen massively, the thought of abandoning her clan had never even crossed her mind before, but this was the second time that this thought had entered her head now, first time was when she’d read the diary and now this.

“R-R-R-Really?” she asked, Sela eleth nodded,

“If you genuinely feel that strongly about my brother and from your words I can tell that you do, I know my father and Matriarch would welcome you into our clan” she said, Shena felt like crying she was so flattered by this genuine acceptance, Sela eleth knew that a decision was a massive one to make and she smiled at her knew friend, “But there’s no need to rush this, just think it over ok?” she said, Shena nodded, “Ok then, now let’s get some sleep, you take the top of the bed next to my brother and I’ll take the other end” she said pointing, Shena suddenly looked really embarrassed,

“N-N-N-Next to Ryan!?” she exclaimed, Sela eleth grinned broadly,

“You too have already had a couple of cuddles so no need to get embarrassed and besides according to my Matriarch there’s no feeling quite like waking up in the arms of the one you love” she said smiling, with that she moved down to the other end of the bed near the foot rest and curled up under the blanket of furs leaving Shena looking at the vacant spot next to Ryan at the head of the bed, her heart started to hammer in her chest as she moved into the spot and lay down, the second she did Ryan turned over and she felt his arms slip around her, the feeling of his touch on her skin was nothing short of amazing, it suddenly felt like all her nerves were on fire and fireworks were going off in her head, she looked at his sleeping face and she realized that she really did think that this male was truly handsome, she turned over on her side facing him and slowly and nervously slipped her arms around him, she was expecting him to wake up and ask her what the hell she thought she was doing any second, but he remained asleep leaving her to relish the amazing warm smooth feeling of his soft skin under her touch and for the first time in her life she felt completely at ease, she ran her hands over the smooth delicious skin of his back and felt the power in the muscles concealed below it and she realized that she loved being able to touch him like this, she realized that unconditional love was a real thing and here it laid right here in her arms hers for the taking if only she could get past her misgivings and let go of her prejudice, as if in tune with those thoughts Ryan sighed happily and tightened his grip on her and she felt his hand running softly up and down the curve of her spine from the top of her back right down to her hips, this sent a tingly thrill through her and instantly started a fire in her belly that she’d never felt before but she really kinda liked, then a thought struck her, although she already knew how Ryan felt about her both of them would have to declare their feelings for each other in a loud and proud voice, she wondered if when the time came she’d have the guts to do this, with that thought bouncing around in her mind amongst the whirlwind of feelings that she’d never felt before her fatigue gripped her again and dragged her into sleep.

Dawn had already broken on this hellish planet of death, but the three young warrior remained asleep in bed totally unaware of the horrors that were heading their way, well that was until an ear splitting screech broke the dawn chorus of birds and animals.

The screech caused all three in the bed to wake with a start, they all sat bolt upright and looked around, it also took Ryan and Shena a second or two to notice that they were both still clinging to each other but neither of them actually moved to let go of the other, “What the hell was that?” Sela eleth asked from the other end of the bed, a second screech made Shena’s mandibles drop open, 

“I know what that is!” she exclaimed, both of the twins turned to look at her, “It’s kiande amedha” she said in a low voice.

At the voicing of the name the three of them scrambled from the bed and instantly started grabbing for their armor and weapons, as Sela eleth hoisted her massive AS50 off the weapons rack that her Matriarch had left here and checked it over, “Can you sense them Ryan?” she asked, he shook his head,

“I still really don’t know how this bloody set up works, I’m still kinda piecing it together from the things that I've seen father do and what I've seen it do on its own” he said, Sela eleth sighed heavily, his Dream Warrior skills and abilities would be a massive boon here, but only if he could figure them out in time, “And besides just like you I've never seen one of these things up close” he said glancing at his sister as he checked his weapons were secure on him,

“I have and they’re not pleasant” Shena said from his left, the twins both looked at her, “They were on the planet that me and my Uncle were hunting on where we encountered the bad bloods” she continued, suddenly Ryan rose to his full height and he had a sparkle in his eyes, Sela eleth knew that look it was one he shared with their Matriarch, it meant that he’d had an idea and usually Ryan’s ideas of this kind meant trouble,

“This is our chance to prove ourselves guys” he said causing both Sela eleth and Shena to look at him in confusion, “Don’t you get it? We’re unblooded hunters, if we take down a couple of those things then we’ll get the right to bear the mark of honor and we’ll be full blooded then!” he explained his eyes sparkling as he said it, this had a profound effect on Shena and Sela eleth noticed it, 

“Your right! If we take down those things, then we will earn the right to call ourselves full bloods and our clans will have to take us seriously!” she exclaimed happily,

“Our clan already take us seriously Ryan” Sela eleth said in a cautionary voice, but she knew what her brother was like when he set his mind to something he was like a force of nature, just like their Matriarch,

“Oh come on Sela! Just think of how proud of us our Matriarch and father will we if we come back full blooded!” he said, she sighed heavily, he did have a point there, their Matriarch would be awfully proud of them if they took down these creatures with no assistance from them, she knew that their father would be worried sick about them, but that was the ooman in him and he couldn't help it, it wouldn't stop him fighting against any and all odds for either something he believed in or someone he loved, but he would always exercise caution.

Sela eleth sighed heavily again, she knew that there was going to be no stopping either her brother or Shena Black crest in this one, she could see they both had their sights set on the glory that this hunt would bring, so it was going to be a case of join the fight or get the hell out of the way and there was no way she Sela eleth would sit on the side lines, he lifted her AS50 and rested the massive barrel on her shoulder, “Let’s go hunt some bugs then shall we?” she said with a dark smile that was returned by both her brother and Shena, they both nodded in unison and all three turned and headed for the door to the cave.

Outside the now secured cave the three young hunters knelt on the ledge observing the jungle canopy below them, they’d all switched their masks over to the frequency designed to allow them to detect the kiande amedha, Sela eleth swept the canopy through the scope of her massive rifle looking for any targets to engage, “Anything?” Ryan asked from her left, she glanced up at him and shook her head,

“Me neither” Shena said from their right, a screech from their far right drew their attention and they turned to look, it wasn't close by the way the sound echoed through the trees, suddenly Sela piped up as she scanned the trees through her scope,   
“Got something!” she exclaimed, Ryan looked where her rifle was pointing and instantly saw large green blobs moving through the trees, there seemed to be about six of them and they seemed to be engaging something in a fight, they were just over half a mile away, 

“Ok here’s the plan, me and Shena will go down there and engage them, Sela you stay here and cover us” he said, he instantly picked up on his sister’s ire as she looked up at him from her scope, she obviously didn't like the thought of being left here, but there was a method to his plan, “You’re a far better shot with one of those ooman rifles than I’ll ever be, we’ll need you to keep them off our backs while we fight otherwise we could end up surrounded and what did father always say?” he said looking at her,

“A good hunt is a team effort” she said with a huff in her voice, he nodded,

“Remember what happened with the Manx Rhinos? If wasn't for you and father taking them down with those guns of yours there’s no way me and our Matriarch would have stood a chance” he said, Sela eleth sighed heavily, she knew he was right, but she still didn't like the thought of leaving them to go down there alone, Ryan placed a hand on his sister’s broad shoulder,   
“If there’s anyone I trust to have my back it’s you Sela, I know how pauking dangerous with one of those you are, I remember that time you managed to shoot the wings off that butterfly when father was training you to use a pistol” he said, she nodded proudly remembering what he was talking about, he grinned under his mask and she could feel him smiling, “Alright then how about we remind these pauks why you don’t pauk with a Mason?” he said and now it was her time to grin, 

“Alright let’s do this” she said, he patted her on her shoulder and ran his hand over the side of her head, then he turned and both he and Shena turned and began to climb down the cliff, while she got herself into a better shooting position and set up her rifle by dialing in the scope, she was determined now, not one of the bullets that left this gun barrel was going to miss, she was going to claim a victory of her own here.

Ryan and Shena made their way down the cliff and took to the trees as they reached the canopy, the pair of them moved rapidly through the branches leaping from branch to branch, Shena again was surprised by Ryan’s incredible level of grace as he bounced effortlessly from branch to branch, he easily made jumps that even made her pause and she’d always prided herself on her climbing abilities and her ability to move rapidly when in the trees, she figured that this had to do with the ooman in him and she guessed that as a species they must be pretty graceful and fast, but she also realized that it was a real pleasure to watch and she was actually thrilled with the chance to hunt with him let alone to be able to hunt kiande amedha at his side, her heart was pounding as she leapt and not just from the efforts of the movements required to pull of the jumps, but from the thrill of going after the most dangerous prey in the universe with the male she loved at her side, that’s when it really hit her, she’d just realized in her own head that she truly did love him, after all of two days of knowing this amazing male she had fallen for him and her feelings had just truly hit her, she’d known that she’d liked him from the beginning but it was only now that the veil of the denial had totally lifted, it had even managed to cloud her mind after the emotional transference that they had done together, but after spending a night willingly in his arms and now heading off to a hunt with him had forced her to see it clearly for the first time and she reveled in it.

As Ryan glanced at Shena Black Crest bouncing gracefully from branch to branch his mandibles dropped open, her lithe figure was an amazing contrast to the greens and browns of the canopy, she was by far the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life, this figure of an amazing, proud, young Yaujta huntress in her element really hit him hard, the way that the sunlight filtering through the leaves caught her skin and made it positively glow as she jumped gracefully through the air, her whole body twisting as she dropped onto yet another branch before full on sprinting along it, her powerful and slender legs compressing causing her toned thighs to tense as she made her next jump.  
There was no denying it now, he had fallen completely in love with this amazing female, his respect for her was deep, this was mainly because when they’d connected for the first time he’d seen all the pain and humiliation that she’d suffered at the hands of her cruel peers, yet she remained proud and she remained standing, she’d shrugged off their cruel taunts and their belittling of her accomplishments and achievements, her refusal to quit and sheer determination to best all odds thrown at her kinda reminded him of his Matriarch, but that wasn’t a bad thing, his father had always told him that when it came to women that he should always choose one who respects herself first, then they will be your equal. He remembered being confused by his words when he said that there was nothing sexier than a strong proud woman who wants to be your equal, nothing more nothing less, now these words made perfect sense to him, because here he saw a young woman who he knew he could trust to have his back, who he knew would stand shoulder to shoulder with him when the going got tough, this was a woman who he wanted in his life, with whom he desperately wanted to share his life.

The pair of them arrived at the scene of the fight with the kiande amedha, there were more of them than they had originally thought, Ryan spotted at least eight of them, they appeared to be attacking some sort of giant primate, which seemed to have responded by hitting at least three of them into the ground like one of his father homemade nails, it was massive standing at least four meters tall and was covered in bright red and gold fur, it seemed to be rather pissed off by the constant attacks by the kiande amedha who were attacking it’s rear legs in an attempt to bring it down, “Plan?” Shena asked, from his right, Ryan focused on the kiande amedha and instantly a green and black aura sprung up around them, the large primate had an aura as red as it’s fiery fur, 

“I think it would be prudent to let that thing thin them out a bit before we attack, no need to fight on two fronts, if we end up drawing that thing’s attention we’ll have one hell of a fight on our hands” he said, Shena nodded agreeing with him, the primate looked pissed off, but it was definitely losing this battle considering how much damage the kiande amedha were doing to it, as they watched the primate tore one of the bugs it had caught in half and threw the halves at its comrades, but both of them saw the smoke rising from its hands where the acidic blood was doing serious damage, it followed up this attack by flattening another one with a massive hammer fist that shook the ground and caused the bug to burst like an over ripe sit, in retaliation the two of the bugs jumped on its back and raced upwards, it managed to get hold of one of them and swung it like a club towards another killing them both with the force of the impact, but the one that managed to scale it got a devastating hit in with its tail, it managed to swipe it across the primates throat severing an artery, the huge jet of blood that sprayed from its throat signaled its doom, the massive creature swung lazily around in a circle before collapsing to the forest floor dead, “It put up an honorable fight” Shena said quietly, Ryan nodded, the bug that had killed it stood triumphantly on its chest one of the five remaining bugs left alive, it screeched it’s victory to the canopy and as it raised up it’s head exploded in a shower of acidic goo.

Shena looked at this in total surprise, she glanced at Ryan as he heard the report echo through the trees, “Hah trust my sister to get the first kill in, damn she’s a fantastic sniper, alright now it’s our turn” he said, suddenly Shena understood what had happened, that massive report had come from Shena’s massive ooman rifle, but it had totally surprised her, she’d always been led to believe that ooman weaponry was weak and worthless, but that could never be said of anything that was capable of taking down a kiande amedha with a single shot, quickly she readied her weapons and jumped down after Ryan who was now on the ground level, he was right now it was their turn and she had no intention of disappointing her perspective mate, in fact quite the opposite, she was determined to impress him, with this battle she would prove herself worth of the love she knew he had for her, while at exactly the same time Ryan was thinking the exact same thing about her.

The remaining kiande amedha turned to look where the shot had come from and instantly saw the two young hunters at the edge of the trees, they screeched a challenge which both Ryan and Shena replied to with their own roars, then both groups charged right towards each other.


	30. Blindsided

Through her scope Sela eleth watched as her brother and Shena Black Crest engaged the bugs, she’d heard about how fearsome these things were from both her parents but to actually look at them, she was horrified by how efficient they were with both their attacks and their design, they were pretty horrific to look at but it was like they were custom made to kill everything in their path.

Ryan twisted out of the way of an incoming tail swipe which slammed into the ground next to him kicking up a spray of dirt and grass as it hit hard, turning on the spot he began spinning his staff like a propeller to block another swipe from a second bug to his right, he was able to bounce the bug’s claws away from him with enough force to spin it away from him, as he did time seemed to slow again and he saw an opening, moving quickly he stopped spinning his staff and moved under the bug’s left arm evading it’s whipping tail as he did and drove his staff head into its side, the creature screeched and fell forwards onto its face, dead. 

Quickly he pulled his staff out of the corpse but the acidic blood was already working on it as he could hear the fizzing of the cheap metal dissolving, so before it became useless he turned and engaged the bug that had tried to spear him with its tail, he just had time to move as it tried to spear him with its jagged barbed tail again, this time it passed so close to his head that he felt the rush off air from the slip stream of it passing by his head, bringing the spear up and using the good side he was able to slice through the bug’s tail taking the sharp tip clean off with the spear’s sharp blades. The bug screeched loudly and flicked its tail in his direction which sent a spray of acidic blood in his direction, some of which made contact with his chest armor which instantly started fizzing as the blood burned holes through it.

Ryan tore the plates from his chest and threw the fizzing metal to one side as he squared off against the wounded creature, one side of his staff was now completely ruined as the blades had dissolved, it had also destroyed park of the shaft shortening the weapon by a fair amount, so he turned it over now and by a safe part held it like a club over his shoulder, he began to circle the creature as it watched him looking for an opening, soon it must have seen one as with no warning it charged right at him and he was only just able to block the incoming rapid swipes with his damaged staff, as he did his Matriarch’s words rung in his head, ‘Remain calm, feel the movements, flow with them and when the opportunity presents itself strike’ he tried to calm his mind but having a screeching eight foot tall screeching ball of black fury right in his face didn’t really help, but as he did time once again slowed down and he was able to observe the creatures muscles flexing signaling an incoming swipe, this made it fairly easy to evade them as he already knew when they were coming and to where, so now his frantic deflections became a much more graceful dance like series of moves and he preemptively deflected the blows causing the creature to off balance more and more with each hit till it eventually lost its balance and spun out, seizing his chance Ryan slammed the broken staff straight into the bug’s exposed back with all his might causing it to pop right out of its chest.

Feeling a rush of triumph Ryan watched the bug fall dead at his feet, he turned just in time to see Shena repeatedly driving her wrist blades into the heart of another bug to his right and his grin widened, having killed these bugs meant that they now had the right to call themselves full blooded hunters as well as to wear the mark now. Suddenly a bug leapt at him with its claws teeth and tail bared to fully impale him from his blind side screeching loudly as it did, he brought his arms up to defend himself with his wrist blades only for its head to be blown apart in midair, with a quick gesture of thanks to his unseen sister he got his mind back in the battle, they were going to have to survive this to call themselves anything.

 

Shena leapt backwards off the chest off the stricken Xeno and with a graceful backwards somersault she quickly glanced over to Ryan to see if he was watching, he was and his body language said that he was impressed with her little display which her made feel happy, then a bug leapt at Ryan from his blind side, she went to shout a warning but as it took to the air it’s head exploded and there was a distant boom which indicated that at least his sister was paying attention, with a gesture of thanks to her Shena turned and squared off against the next Xeno which was circling her while hissing menacingly, out of no-where another leapt at her side knocking her to the ground with a heavy thud, before it was able to drop a killing blow with its tail to the center of her chest she rolled and jammed her nearly ruined wrist blades upwards into its chest, the Xeno screeched and thrashed but it was the tail that was the problem as with a lucky thrash it managed to score a hit to her shoulder taking a fair sized chunk out of her skin, she quickly pushed the dying Xeno over onto its side just in time to see the one that she’d originally been squared up to opening its jaws to hit her with its inner mouth, but before the hit came a massive hole appeared through the top of its head. 

The telltale boom of Sela’s rifle echoed through the canopy and Shena glanced down from the creature’s face to its body, the massive projectile that that thing fired had punched a hole straight through the creature’s head and reentered its body through its abdomen taking most of its entrails out it’s back, “By the goddess!” Shena exclaimed at her close call as she scrambled free and stood up stunned, quickly she checked herself over but apart from the shoulder wound which had effectively crippled her left arm she was untouched, that shot had effectively been a miracle hit.

Sela scanned the battle field through her scope after checking that Shena was still moving, she appeared to be injured but otherwise alive which slowed her rapidly beating heart, her brother was engaged with one of the last remaining bugs to her far left, other than that there were two left, one was heading for the wounded Shena, Sela took a deep breath and eased it out taking the trigger pressure, the massive rifle boomed and jumped, “One left” she said as the creature’s head exploded and it slid to a halt at Shena’s feet.

Ryan finished the Xeno he was engaged with by dummying it left and when it took the bait he swung around to its right and got behind it stabbing it in the back with his wrist blades, then he turned and saw Shena recollecting herself, she appeared to be injured but she was still on her feet which was good, the last bug was in the middle of the clearing and it seemed to have clicked onto the fact that it was facing down three assailants, it knew that its position was hopeless so rather than engage them it turned and fled towards the forest on the far side, it ran in a zig zag pattern to avoid Sela’s shots which followed it, two of which slammed into the ground at its feet kicking up huge divots of grass and mud, the third time was indeed a charm as he’d heard his father say on occasion as the large round slammed through the creature’s back causing it’s chest to explode outwards.

As the last Xeno fell Sela stood up with her rifle, she gave a massive roar of victory which echoed through the forest canopy sending flying creatures skywards in every direction, it was instantly returned by two returning roars from below her.  
Sela rapidly rejoined her brother who was tending to Shena’s wounds, she noted that he had a few of his own but they were no-where near as serious as her shoulder, she smiled at him through her mask, he may not be able to cook for shit but he knew how to tend to battle injuries and with the aid of her first aid kit he made short work of sealing it and stapling it shut which caused Shena to roar in pain as he did it, as he dealt with that she slung her rifle over her back and made her way over one of the Xeno corpses, leaning down she managed to snap off one of its fingers with this in hand she walked back to her brother and Shena.

“So how gets the mark first?” she said grinning under her mask, both Ryan and Shena looked at each other and then nodded at each other, 

“You” they both said in unison, this surprised Sela and she looked taken aback,

“You were the first of us to fell one of the lithesome creatures so it’s only right that you are the first of us to receive the mark” Ryan explained, at his shoulder Shena was nodding away in agreement, then he stepped forwards and removed his sister’s mask and took the finger from her, “So are you ready to become a full blooded huntress sister?” he asked, she smiled at him drawing her mandibles up,

“I was born ready” she said with a grin, he grinned back at her then he stepped forwards and using a small amount of the Xeno’s acidic blood on the creature’s clawed finger he drew the well-remembered symbol on her forehead next to her clan mark which now marked her as a full blooded huntress of the clan Mason, her skin smoked and hissed as the acid permanently branded her and he saw his sister wince at the pain, but it was a pain she gladly bore for the honor of wearing this mark.

After a few minutes they had all inscribed the mark on each other each taking the pain of the acid burns gladly, after that they decided to take some trophies from the fallen bugs as further proof of their deeds here today, unbeknown to them they had a silent observer hidden in the forest canopy who was currently impressed by their victory, he hadn't believed that the three young unblooded hunters had stood a chance against a pack of kiande amedha but not only had they survived but they had prospered, he watched as they observed the time honored tradition of taking the mark of a full blooded hunter from their peers, as he saw his target take the mark his muscles tightened, it had been a long hunt tracking the bad bloods to this planet as they were naturally sneaky and underhanded making his hunt far harder than it should have been, but the harder the hunt the more he relished the challenge, but finally his target was in sight, but rather than strike now he decided to watch and to wait.

Later on back at the cave Sela was preparing dinner while Ryan and Shena were checking their weapons over, both of their melee weapons had suffered massive damage due to the Xeno blood, Ryan had totally lost his spear and Shena had lost her wrist blades, Ryan sighed heavily as he looked at Shena’s destroyed wrist blades, “What I wouldn't give for a set of my father’s handmade dark metal blades” he said, 

“Your father makes weapons?” Shena asked curiously, 

“Our father makes incredible weapons, last year for Christmas he made our Matriarch a massive two handed ooman sword called a claymore, it’s huge easily taller than any of us and it’s even got a name” Sela said without turning from her pot, 

“Wow that sounds awesome!” Shena said with wide eyes, Ryan nodded,

“Our Matriarch promptly used Soul Splitter to cut the head of a Venorax boar with a single swing” Ryan said proudly as he remembered going hunting for the first time with his Matriarch as she took the massive sword out for its trial run,

“Soul Splitter?” Shena asked,

“That’s the sword’s name, our father names every weapon he creates, says it gives them character” Sela said as she added spices to the pot,

“My Matriarch has a spear she calls Blood Letter it’s absolutely massive and real mean looking with huge razor sharp dual blades and it doesn’t even collapse for easy carrying, but whatever she hits with it dies” Shena said remembering the massive spear, Ryan nodded knowingly, suddenly there was a howl from outside and all three looked at the doorway and then at each other, “I’ll go take a look” Ryan said getting to his feet, Shena did the same,

“I’ll come too” she said, Ryan was about to stop her but he saw his sister vigorously shaking her head behind her to stop him, so he let her get up and the pair of them made their way out of the front of the cave.

Outside the cave the pair scanned the forestry through their visors, it was a pack of Calibri wolves that were causing all the noise, but up here they were harmless to them so the pair relaxed, removing his mask Ryan turned to look at Shena, “You fought very well today I was impressed” he said sounding a little shy as he said it, Shena cocked her head at him before taking her mask off, 

“Not well enough to prevent this” she said indicating her wounded shoulder,  
“That just means it was a victory hard earned as well as fight well fought” Ryan said smiling, Shena smiled at him, it seemed that he really did understand his Yaujta side, the point of her shoulder had been a quick test to see what he would say and how he’d react, as she looked at him now she felt her heart step it up a few gears and start to pound in her chest, then out of no-where he reached out his hand to her and hesitantly she took it half expecting the second they touched for him to jump into her head again, but then he’d already seen into her heart and he’d seen her deepest darkest secrets, so this was it, accept his silent proposal or reject him out of fear. 

Shena decided she wasn't going to live in fear or self-loathing anymore, this beautiful half breed male had shown her that the path of life was indeed broader and twistier than she’d ever imagined, his skin was warm and soft and slowly he pulled her towards him, her heart beat faster and faster as she got closer and closer to him, “There’s something I've wanted to do since I've met you, so with your permission” Ryan said in a soft voice, she nodded her consent, “Follow my lead” he said quietly, then he stepped forwards so their bodies pressed together and he slowly opened his mandibles, Shena nervously did the same and she instantly found out exactly what those fleshy things that cover his teeth were for as Ryan entwined his mandibles with hers and pressed the fleshy things to her inner mouth.

Shena felt like her heart was about to explode, never in her life had she imagined that something so intimate and pleasurable existed, instinctively she opened her inner mouth as she felt Ryan’s flesh inner mouth make contact and to her utter surprise and delight she felt his tongue slip out of his mouth and into hers, they stood there embracing each other their tongues dancing and exploring each other’s mouth as they experienced their first kiss.

As they broke for air their both closed their mandibles and looked into the others eyes, “Wow” Shena breathed breaking the silence between them, Ryan smiled and his eyes seemed to sparkle, 

“I figured since you already knew how I felt about you it was just up to me to prove it” he said,

“What did we just do?” she asked kinda breathlessly, 

“Oomans call it kissing” he said, suddenly Shena’s mandibles opened and reached towards him, 

“I want more” she said and Ryan happily obliged her.

After a little while the two new found lovers were sat on the edge of the cliff, Shena was wrapped up in Ryan’s arms and she had hers wrapped around his torso and was enjoying the feel of his soft warm skin, “You know I was a little worried that you were going to go all Dream Warrior and go into my head again” she said softly, 

“Nah I value my life I know how females get touchy about privacy” Ryan said, Shena looked up at him sharply and saw him smiling and she realized he was teasing her, she gave him a playful swat across the head and his smile grew,

“In seriousness I’m sorry that it happened the first time didn't mean too….” He began but she held up a hand to stop him, 

“I know you didn't, it was a shock at first but I’m glad that you did” she said, Ryan looked fully shocked at this,

“You are?” he asked sounding surprised, she nodded her head,

“Yeah, because it forced me to accept my feelings and to not hide from them as you already knew them as well as I did” she said, he nodded slowly, 

“So how about now?” he asked,

“What do you mean?” she asked,

“How do you feel now? You know about me being a half breed and a Dream Warrior?” he asked, she smiled and took his hand, then she placed it to the side of her head,

“Rather than tell you why don’t you see for yourself?” she said, this surprised Ryan but he decided to take her up on her offer and he focused on her, this time the connection was instantaneous and her thought and feelings flooded into his mind and a huge smile broke out on his face as he met her eyes, he could feel the intense love for him that was building inside her, then he broke the connection between them and he placed his forehead against hers, 

“I feel the same about you” he said before the kissed again.

After they broke from their kiss they sat there canoodling for a few minutes before Shena placed her head on his shoulder, “You know I never did ask, how did those kiande amedha appear to your aura vision?” she asked, Ryan glanced at her, 

“Odd question” he said, she shrugged lightly under his grip,

“I just wondered if they are truly as evil as they look” she asked,

“Not really, they were neither, their aura’s are different from ours, neither white nor black, it’s more of a fire red if I’m honest” he said,

“Red huh? I wonder what that mean?” she asked, he shrugged,

“Dunno, I’m kinda new to this whole Dream Warrior thing remember, my father would be able to tell us what the colors mean, all I know is white is good and black is evil” he said, then suddenly he stiffened and looked into the canopy, 

“Speaking of white aura’s there’s one in the trees over there” he said pointing, then his whole body shuddered from an impact and right in front of her face Shena saw a large black dart appear in Ryan’s chest and he went limp in her arms.

“Ryan!!” Shena exclaimed as she saw her male go limp in her arms and she quickly pulled the dart out of his chest, but it was too late the knock out toxin on it had done its job and dropped him, then before she could react she felt a sharp impact on her right thigh and she felt a cold numbness spreading outwards from the impact site, she turned and saw the dart sticking out of her right leg and quickly pulled it out, she tried to get to her feet but her legs wouldn’t respond, this was swiftly followed by her arms and she slumped to the ground next to the unconscious body of her male, she tried to reach out for him but her body refused to respond.

From his hide in the trees the silent observer watched the two youngsters sharing their love for one another in a very strange fashion, they seemed to be wrestling with their mandibles, “Kid’s these days” he huffed silently to himself, then as he listened to their conversation afterwards he got a shock, not only was the boy not fully Yaujta but an abomination but he was also a revered Dream Warrior, this left him with an enormous problem, his honor demanded that he destroy the abomination as it couldn’t be allowed to exist and to now kill the young female as well for cavorting with an abomination such as him, but if this male was truly a Dream Warrior he couldn't knowingly kill him, then as he watched trying to decide what to do the male spotted him in the trees even though he was cloaked which only served to prove that he was indeed a Dream Warrior as only one with the power of the second sight would be able to see through his cloak so easily, so now with his mind made up he fired a knock out dart into the boy’s chest followed by a stun dart into the leg of his target.

As he climbed up to the edge of the cliff he stood over the unconscious male half breed and now he was this close to him he could truly see that he was a half breed, his skin was different, his Dreadlocks were different and his face was more ooman than Yaujta, the young female was trying to move and was obviously trying to reach for the male out of some misguided attempt to shield him, decloaking he looked down at his target and instantly saw her eyes widen as she saw him, “A-A-A-Arbiter?” she stammered, holding his hand up to silence her he knelt down and looked at her, 

“Shena Black Crest of the honored Shadow Claw clan as an Arbiter of the Shadow Claw Clan I find you guilty of conduct unbecoming of a blooded Yaujta huntress by cavorting with this half breed, the normal sentence for this heinous crime is death, but due to your status within the clan and this male’s status as a Dream Warrior I will not execute you, rather I will leave you to your fate on this planet, you will live out the rest of your days here and will die here, you are hereby exiled from the Shadow Claw Clan and stripped of your status, should our path’s cross again I will kill you” the Arbiter said in a rough voice, 

“E-E-E-Exiled!!?” Shena stammered in disbelief, then she watched helplessly as the Arbiter turned and picked up the unconscious Ryan, 

“No! wait where are you taking him!!?” she exclaimed,

“To face his trial” the Arbiter said before he reapplied his cloak and jumped into the forest,

“NOOOOOOOOOO DON’T TAKE THE MALE I LOVE, RYANNNNNNNNN!!!!!!” Shena screamed after the already vanished figure.


	31. Last One Standing

As soon as she heard the scream Sela eleth was already moving, bursting out of the cave with her weapons drawn the first thing she saw was Shena on the ground trying desperately to move, her hands were stretched out in the direction of the forest and there was no sign of her brother anywhere.   
Dashing to Shena’s side the first thing she saw was the dart on the floor next to her, the second thing she saw was the tears streaming down her face as well of the look of pure rage in her eyes, “What happened? Where’s Ryan?” she asked grabbing Shena’s shoulders and lifting her up to face her, 

“He took him” Shena said in a distraught sounding voice, 

“Who took him? The bad bloods?” Sela asked her heart already sinking, Shena looked at her and tried to shake her head but it came off as limp wobble thanks to the paralysis toxin,

“No” she said,

“Then who? Who took my brother!!?” Shena asked her voice filling with desperation now,

“An Arbiter of my clan” Shena said her voice sounding pretty confused,

“The Shadow Claw clan are here!?” Sela exclaimed,

“He exiled me and took Ryan” Shena said, Shena’s heart really sank now, but there was still a chance, the Shadow Claw clan were an honorable clan so there was a chance for them to get him back,

“Where did he take him?” Sela asked quickly,

“To face trial” Shena responded, this confused Sela eleth what had he done wrong?

“Trial? Trial for what?” she asked,

“For being an abomination and for courting me” Shena replied her voice choking up on her tears, Shena was filled with rage now, how dare they judge her beloved brother for merely existing, who the hell did they think they were passing judgment on people for simply being alive and for daring to develop feelings for another, especially when those feelings were being returned in equal measure. 

“Which way did he go?” she asked in a sharp voice looking at the tearful Shena, she tried to point but her arm refused to move, in the end she ended up just gesturing with her head in a sort of wobbly nod, Sela’s first instinct was to go racing off to find her beloved brother, but she couldn’t run out into the forest at night leaving Shena here helpless, she’d be defenseless if anything like the bad bloods came her way, she had to clear this toxin out of her body and get her moving then they could both go after her brother and seeing the seething rage in Shena’s eyes Sela was sure she wanted a chance to get her own back, so turning she quickly dragged the paralyzed huntress back into the cave and placed her on the bed, then she turned and immediately started rummaging through all the powdered herbs and medicines her matriarch had left behind when she’d lived here.

It took an hour and quite a potent mixture of herbs and detoxifiers to purge Shena’s body of the paralyzing toxin, it wasn't a pleasant process for her and most of the time she’d spent being sick or shaking uncontrollably while her body sweated out the toxin, Sela was just glad she’d paid attention to her Matriarch when she’d taught her the uses of local fauna for medicinal purposes, but now Shena although far from being at a hundred percent was up and raring to go after Ryan.

The pair of them armed up taking all the weapons they could find including some that her Matriarch had left behind in the cave, with her AS50 in the shoulder and scanning ahead of them Sela followed as Shena led.  
Shena was following the signs in the trees of which direction the Arbiter had taken, normally a hunter as skilled as an Arbiter would be almost impossible to track, but while he was carrying an unconscious male on his shoulder he would be impaired, there were subtle signs for her to follow like a trail of bread crumbs, a gouge in the tree bark where his boots had scuffed it after a heavy jump, a claw mark from having to grab onto a branch to steady himself, broken branches here and there where he’d sacrificed stealth for speed, each of them read like a map to Shena’s eyes and she followed it with a cold seething determination, after a life of scorn and ridicule this had been the final straw, not only had this Arbiter not even bothered to kill her and grant her an honorable death choosing instead to exile and shame her, but he’d also taken the only thing in her life that had meant anything to her, it was now that she realized the truth behind Tik eleth’s words in her diary, her clan although considered honorable and exalted among other clans, treated anyone that didn't fit their ideal of a Yaujta like dirt and punished them for it, whether it was for something they could control or not. 

Now they had over stepped the line, they had taken this innocent male who had committed no crime other than existing and developing feelings for her and daring to express them, outside of her immediate family he was only person who had treated her honorably and as an equal, despite the fact that when she had found out what he was she had scorned him, this wonderful beautiful special male had proved to her his honor and his intentions in doing what he had done for her, now it was her turn to prove hers to him, not only was she going to get him back she was going to spit in the face of her clan in the process, just like Tik eleth before her, she knew now that there was another way and given the chance she was going to take it.

They followed the trail through the trees and on the ground for at least two hours, it eventually led them to a ridge overlooking a massive valley, Shena stopped in a tree on the ridge line that looked right down into the valley and was swiftly joined by Sela who had been running along the forest floor but now jumped up into the tree, “He’s down there somewhere I know it” Shena said quietly, Sela scanned the valley with the scope of her powerful rifle from left to right, then something drew her attention and Shena noticed her track it back and refocus the scope, “What do you see?” she asked, Sela glanced away from her scope at her new friend, 

“Take a look” she said holding out he rifle to her, Shena took the massive rifle from her and she looked through the scope which took a little getting used to while wearing a hunting mask, but she soon got the hang of it and was instantly impressed by the level of magnification these ooman weapons provided, “On the other side of the valley do you see the small lake on the plateau?” Sela asked, Shena scanned the scope back and forth till she had it lined up,

“Got it” she said, 

“Look to the left of the water” Sela said, Shena did as she was told but saw nothing, “Look at the way the trees are leaning” Sela clarified seeing that her friend blatantly saw nothing, Shena looked and at first she was about to say that there was nothing there, that was till she saw a frond drop from a tree and slide down something that wasn't there, that’s when she noticed that four of the trees were being forced over at an odd angle, 

“A cloaked ship!” she exclaimed,

“Bingo” Sela said, Shena glanced at her,

“What the pauking hell is a bingo?” she asked, Sela shrugged,

“No idea but it’s something that my father says when he finds something he’s lost, figured it was appropriate” she said with a grin under mask, 

“Right then what the pauk are we waiting for let’s get over there and get my male back” Shena said the anger and impatience obvious in her voice, Sela snorted a laugh at the fact that Shena was already describing Ryan as her male after only two days but then her father and Matriarch had been the same way, maybe it was a Shadow Claw clan thing, then she saw Shena eyeing her, 

“What’s so funny?” she asked turning to face her, 

“Nothing but we can’t go charging over there without a plan of attack, this is an Arbiter we’re dealing with and if the stories my Matriarch told me about them then they’re a lot like my father” Sela said,

“So?” Shena said,

“That means that they are someone to really worry about and to take rather pauking seriously, so if we go charging in unprepared then we both end up dead and he still takes Ryan” Sela said, now it was Shena’s turn to huff, but it was a huff of agreement, the Arbiters really were people to e feared, they were among the most fearless and exalted Yaujta warriors and they were certainly not fools, lowering the rifle and handing it back to Sela she looked a little chastised, 

“Any ideas? She asked, Sela smiled slyly below her mask,

“Just one, it’s a long shot but it might just work” she said.

As she moved through the trees towards the lake Shena found herself wondering why the Arbiter had not left yet, she figured that he must be sending a report to the clan ship of what had occurred, maybe he was even in direct contact with them right at this very moment.  
Then her thought’s wandered to Ryan and her heart started to beat faster, a mixture of loss and rage boiled in her blood, it was true that they hadn't known each other very long at all, but did that make their feelings any less valid? She herself couldn't believe that in this very short period of time this whirlwind of feelings and emotions had blown through her and turned everything that she’d ever known and believed on its head, she’d always been taught that love was something that had to be developed and nurtured, that it didn't just develop on its own and a lot of time was required for it to happen, in fact she remembered something her own Matriarch had said to her when she was small when she’d asked her how she and father had met, that she and her father hadn't fallen in love till years after knowing each other, in fact when they were first introduced they couldn't stand each other, but over time and after rutting together the feelings had just happened so slowly that neither of them had even properly noticed till it was too late, but then there were others who had just had took look at one another to know that they were going to be together forever. In fact, this caused her to remember something that had been written in Tik eleth’s diary, it was something Jack had said when Tik had been talking to him about it when she was trying to understand how quickly had she not only fallen in love with him but had abandoned all her taught principles for him, apparently oomans called it love at first sight and that it was rare but it usually happened when you met your true soul mate, it seemed that Tik eleth had met her one and only true soul mate in the ooman called Jack and they had just clicked into place with one another right away, it was those words that fit how she felt about Ryan so perfectly, she had no doubt in her mind that he was her soul mate and she didn’t care how long she had known him, to her it felt like she’d known him her entire life, like he’d always been there somewhere in her soul calling out to her and now she’d finally met who that voice had belonged to, when they’d linked she’d felt her own feelings for him mirrored back to her from him and she’d known right at that moment that it was meant to be, but now he’d been taken from her and she now knew that she’d do anything to get him back.

Upon reaching the edge of the lake where the cloaked ship was located Shena activated her cloaking device and began he circle around the edge of the lake, even though it was cloaked Shena could hear the soft thrum of the engines, that meant that the Arbiter was already on board with Ryan and had powered the ship up, this meant that she had to move quickly if this plan was going to have a chance to succeed, the grass around the lake was long and she had to watch that she wasn't making too obvious a trail through it as she approached where the ship was parked, when she was close she took one of the device’s that Sela had given her, she looked at it and turned it over in her hands, for some reason she didn't trust this ooman technology, despite the fact she’d seen with her own eyes how powerful one of their rifles was and even then Sela had said that that one was a piece of junk compare to one of her fathers upgraded models, she’d have still rather had a plasma caster any day, but in its absence this would have to do, then taking a deep breath she pulled the small metallic pin out of it and a small leaver had flicked off, then she pitched it hard, but not at the cloaked ship but into the water right next to it.

After a few seconds there was a loud but dull thud from under the water and a massive plume of it shot into the air drenching everything around the area, as soon as the water made contact with the ship the cloak started sparking and shorting, Sela had been right when she’d said that Yaujta cloaking tech really didn't like water, a second later there was a massive crack followed by a boom from the direction of the tree where Sela was camped, the massive projectile bounced off the armored hull of the ship but it did further disrupt the cloak causing large parts of the ship to become visible temporarily, more booms and more round pinged off the ship’s armored hull, just as she was grinning at how well the plan was working Shena noticed the large twin guns on top of the ship start to turn as the Arbiter tried to zero on where the shots were coming from, Sela must have noticed as well because the bullets started pinging off the gun’s themselves as they turned, Shena chose that moment to break cover and run to the ship and straight up to the hatch, she pressed the button for it to open and there was a series of whirring noises from behind the metal and then the large dark metal hatch began to roll open, quick as a flash she stepped inside and pressed another button on the far wall to close the outer hatch and cycle the air lock, as soon as she did a klaxon started sounding and the outer hatch sealed but the other one didn't open, she began to punch the button over and over again, “Come on!!” she said desperately as she pounded the button, 

“You are resourceful little one I have to give you that, but did you seriously think that I’d have a ship with no counter measures for intrusion?” the Arbiters voice boomed through a speaker, Shena banged her fist against the inner door in frustration, then from above her she heard the ship’s cannons loose off a set of shots and she prayed that Sela eleth had managed to get the pauk out of the way of it, then the whole ship shook and she was thrown painfully against the wall and she realized that they were lifting off, then the whole ship banked over and she was thrown against the outer door with a thud that knocked the air out of her, “This is where you get off” the Arbiter’s voice said through the speaker and with a whoosh the outer door shot open with incredible speed and suddenly she was flying, or rather falling straight down towards the lake.

As soon as she’d seen those big cannons line up on her hide Sela eleth had jumped from the tree and set off running through the forest, it had proved to be a well-timed move as only seconds later the entire area where she had been was vaporized by the blast from the massive guns, then she watched the ship take off and bank violently over to the left and as she watched she saw the outer door fly open and a small figure was ejected into the air, “Oh pauk Shena!!” she exclaimed as she saw her new friend falling from the ship towards the lake, the plan had failed but she had to reach her friend, she turned to look for a path down the valley but as she did she was surprised to see a figure dressed all in black stood to her left, her initial thought was that it was a bad blood but as she moved to level her rifle and fire it she was hit in the chest by something that sent a huge shock through her body causing all muscles to spasm uncontrollably, she instantly lost control of herself and dropped the massive gun before falling on her face, then she felt something sharp being jabbed into her upper shoulder and her head began to feel all swimmy and fuzzy, “Who are you?” she slurred trying to not only control her spasming mandibles but whatever was just pumped into her fuzzed her head and made her tongue feel numb, it was at that this point through the fuzzy she realized that this person was way too small to be a Yaujta not unless they were her age anyway and that was the last thought that hit her brain before it all went black.

Shena felt really strange, she felt like she was floating back in her Matriarch’s womb, it was such a comfortable feeling that she felt like she could just curl up and there would be nothing to worry about anymore, then as she was contemplating doing just that a voice spoke to her in the darkness, “Don’t you dare give up! Don’t you dare go into the darkness! You are Shena Black Crest full blooded huntress, you stand up and you fight! Now FIGHT!!!” it yelled in her head, t sounded oddly familiar and then a face flashed into the darkness, it was a handsome young Yaujta male and for some reason she felt connected to this person somehow, “I am waiting for you, if you want me you’re going to have to fight for me, now FIGHT!!” the voice roared again, then a name swam into her dark void, Ryan it whispered and suddenly her mind flashed with blinding white light and the male was back this time surrounded by a roaring white fire that swirled around him, that’s when it all came flooding back to her.

Shena took a huge gasping breath and opened her eyes, in a panic she looked around herself and everything was blurry, there seemed to be large wavy plants all around her and she realized that she was under water, luckily for her the hunting mask she was wearing doubled as a rebreather, quickly trying to orientate herself she swam upwards and burst her head out of the water, she was in the middle of the lake that the Arbiter’s ship had been parked next to, she painfully swam over to the shore nearest to her and she flopped onto her back breathing heavily as she looked into the sky in the direction that the ship had gone. She felt so completely useless and like a complete failure Ryan was long gone she had been thrown out of an air lock and Sela could have been incinerated for all she knew, “Oh pauk Sela!!” she said sitting up sudden enough that it caused spots to flash into her vision, looking over to the area where the ship had fired there was nothing, no tree and no fire, what’s more it was perfectly visible due to the daylight, “Daylight!! How pauking long was I out!!” she yelled as she flipped over onto her hands and knees and went to get to her feet, as she did she saw two sets of boots stood right in front of her and she became aware of a long blade inches from her face.


	32. Building Bridges

Shena Black Crest looked at the long blade in front of her fact, the thing was absolutely huge and was beautifully decorated with unusual runes and lettering that had been etched into the metal, the blade was easily wider than her arm at its widest point, following it upwards with her eyes she realized that it appeared to be some kind of sword that was easily six foot in length made in a black metal that shimmered in the sunlight making the runes really pop out, it led up to a large curved golden guard that was shaped like a set of wings, or more accurately bat or dragons wings, she couldn’t quite tell from here, this flowed into a massive two handed grip with a large round black and silver colored pommel on the end.  
The massive sword was being held by someone dressed in what appeared to be some form of Yaujta armor, but it was unlike anything she had ever seen in her life, it was completely white and gold from the crested breast plate right to the white and gold hunting mask, the figure also had a billowing white cape behind it that swirled around it like a white fire.  
The figure had a presence like nothing Shena had ever seen in her life, it just screamed fierce without saying a word, stood to the figure’s right was the owner of the second set of boots, this one was blatantly a female Yaujta, her feminine shape and brown and tan skin was visible below her armor but she was dressed in a rather unfamiliar clan armor. She was wearing a rather nasty looking par of twin wrist blades made in a deep black metal, this led into her very toned and well-kept arms, the chest plate was gold and black that led into a massive set of shoulder pauldrons with a pair of twin mounted plasma casters that bore a crest that seemed familiar to her for some reason, Shena noticed that both plasma casters were pointed right at her head.

For a moment she stared at both the figures and they stared right back at her with neither speaking, she noted that both figures were extremely well-armed, both had a collection of swords and blades hanging off them and they seemed to be geared for any type of engagement.   
The figure in white decided to break the standoff and slowly lowered the large sword before flipping it over and locking it into a rather large scabbard mounted between its shoulders, Shena couldn’t tell if it was a male or a female but it seemed a bit on the small side for a Yaujta despite its armor, it was at that point that Shena’s eyes locked onto something that nearly made them pop out of her head, on the figure’s back right next to the sword was a very long projectile weapon, it was exactly the same type of ooman gun that Sela carried.

“Where did you get that rifle!!?” she exclaimed pointing at it, both figures looked at each other as if deciding how to respond, “Did you find it on a Yaujta girl near the top of that ridge line? Is she ok? Is she alive? tell me please!” Shena demanded in a half aggressive half pleading tone, that caught both figures attention and the female snapped her head around to look at her and Shena heard a growl coming from her, but just as the female was about to take a step towards her the figure in white held a hand up and placed it on her shoulder which seemed to calm her, 

“So you must be Shena black crest I presume?” the figure asked in a distinctly masculine but rather soft voice, this surprised Shena, who was this figure?

“How do you know my name?” she demanded, the figure reached up and with both hands removed his hunting mask and as soon as it was clear of his face Shena’s eyes nearly popped out of her head, 

“Because you’ve met my son” the ooman male said in perfect Yaujta.

“Y-Y-Y-You’re an ooman!!?” Shena stammered staring at his face in disbelief, he smiled broadly and his bright blue eyes seemed to sparkle in the light, the very same bright blue eyes that Sela eleth had.

“Yup, my name is Jack Mason and this is my life mate Tik eleth Mason” he said first gesturing to himself and then to the female to his right, Shena swallowed hard this was not the way she had wanted to meet Ryan’s parents.

Jack suddenly thrust a hand out in her direction and she winced at first almost expecting it to contain a blade of some kind, but she swiftly realized it was an empty hand extended intended to help her to her feet, timidly she took it and with surprising strength for an ooman he hoisted her to her feet, then in a sudden flash she felt another presence in her head and as she watched him she saw Jack’s eye’s change to a silver color in the same way that Ryan’s had when he’d entered her head, she tried to pull her hand away in fear but Jack’s grip was extremely strong, then as quickly as the presence had come it went and Jack’s eyes returned to normal, he released her hand and she snatched it back to her chest and cradled it looking at him in shock, “My apologies for the intrusion young one but I find it quicker and easier to go directly to source rather than spend time questioning someone” he said apologetically in his soft voice,

“So you really are a Dream Warrior, when Ryan said it to me I didn’t know how to believe him, I didn’t think ooman’s could be Dream Warriors” Shena said quietly, Jack smiled and nodded,

“We oomans may just come to surprise you Shena if you give us a chance” he said smiling, 

“So? Where are our children?” Tik eleth suddenly said from Jack’s right in a rather gruff and irritated voice, Jack turned to face his large soul mate,

“An Arbiter from the Shadow Claw clan has taken Ryan, he paralyzed Shena with a dart and took Ryan, she and Sela eleth tried to rescue him but failed and the Arbiter got away” Jack said to her, this news seemed to shock and annoy Tik eleth and she roared so loudly and with such intensity that it shook Shena to her very core, then suddenly Shena remembered Sela and she snapped out of her shock, 

“Sela! We have to find Sela she could be hurt!!” she said with an almost panicked voice, this sudden revelation snapped Tik eleth out of her fury and she looked right at Shena, 

“Where is she!? Where is my beloved daughter!?” she growled at her menacingly, Shena pointed to the hole in the trees on the ridge, 

“She was up there with her large ooman rifle, she was covering me while I tried to board the Arbiter’s ship to rescue Ryan, but he fired at her with his plasma cannons before blowing me out of the air lock” she said quickly, the news that Shena had tried to rescue her son seemed to calm Tik’s fury but it swiftly reignited when the thought that her daughter maybe laying injured or worse up there on that ridge, 

“If my beloved daughter is injured or goddess forbid worse then I will personally tear that Arbiter’s arms off and beat him to death with them, no-one pauks with my cubs!!” Tik roared in a voice that sent a chill down Shena’s spine before she set off in the direction of the ridge with Jack and Shena following behind her.

The three of them set a blistering pace through the jungle as they headed up to the ridge where Sela eleth had been, Shena couldn’t help but look admiringly at the two figures running alongside her, Tik eleth was the epitome of a Yaujta female on the war path, fearsome, proud and strong, her every movement had confidence and purpose as she ran, then there was Jack, he moved with such speed and grace that Shena still struggled to believe that he was indeed ooman, he was nothing like the oomans she’d been brought up to believe were totally inferior and nothing more than a dumb prey species, the second he’d removed his mask she’d seen the powerful intelligence behind those sparkling blue eyes, she could also see where Ryan had gotten his looks from, then a blush flushed across her face as she realized what she’d just thought in her head, she’d inadvertently called an ooman attractive, that’s when the memories of the diary that Sela had showed her came back and the vivid descriptions of what these two had done together and her blush intensified tenfold, she’d never been so glad of her hunting mask in her life.

Finally, they reached the crater where the Arbiter’s plasma cannons had torn up the landscape, the trees were burnt to a crisp and there was a rather large hole right in the center, the three of them stood looking into the hole, there was no sign of a body or remains and they all took that as a good sign, Jack stepped up to the edge of the crater and he held up his hand as if he was gesturing to something unseen, then slowly he cast it about from left to right, Shena was about to say something when Tik eleth placed a rather large hand on her shoulder, “Do not interrupt him, he’s calling to the spirits for guidance” she said in a gruff voice, Shena looked up at the big female who was staring at her ooman mate, then without a word Jack suddenly took off around the outside of the crater heading left, both Tik eleth and Shena Black Crest followed the ooman Dream Warrior closely as he ran into the trees, Shena couldn’t help but be reminded of the time that she’d followed Ryan blindly through the forest till somehow he’d managed to lead her to the very cave that his sister had been in, this Dream warrior thing sure was confusing to watch but it never ceased to be fascinating.

Jack stopped next to a large tree, then he knelt down and inspected the ground, there were multiple boot prints on the ground and signs of rapid movement, the floor was littered with large shiny brass cases that Shena recognized were from Sela’s rifle, Jack followed the foot prints away from the tree till he found a rather large mark on the ground, then he picked up some kind of small dart that had a wire coming from it and stood up holding it up for them to see, “The good news is our daughter is alive the bad news is that she too has been taken” Jack said turning to face Tik, she growled angrily as she took the small dart from him and inspected it, 

“Bad bloods?” she spat the question as if it left a bad taste in her mouth, Jack shook his head,

“Nope and as weird as this sounds I think it was humans” he said using the proper name for his species, both Tik and Shena turned to look at him in confusion,

“That’s a Taser dart, it’s a human stun weapon, from what I’m seeing here she escaped from the Arbiter’s parting shot only to be blindsided by a human who hit her with that and knocked her out, or more accurately two of them” he said pointing at the twin sets of foot prints leading away from the scene.

Tik eleth growled at this confusing information, “Why are there oomans here? And where did they come from? And what do they want with our daughter?” she asked in quick succession, Jack shrugged, 

“I have no idea, as far as I know humans still don’t have deep space capability, so the only thing I can come up with is that the bad bloods brought them here to hunt just like they did with me, maybe they mistook our Sela eleth for one of them, but then that beggars the question as to why they didn’t just kill her?” he said rubbing his neck under his mask, the thought of her daughter being harmed caused Tik eleth to growl again,

“We must get our children back Ack!” she said, Jack turned and walked up to Tik before putting his arms around her large frame and drawing her into a hug, 

“And we will my love and we’ll make those who took them pay for what they have done” he said, Tik clicked her mandibles in agreement with her soul mate, “But first we need a plan because now this has just got a whole lot more complicated” he said, Tik eleth nodded in agreement and the pair of them released and turned to face Shena, “Ok I think it would be best if we split up” Jack said, 

“Split up? Why?” Tik eleth asked,

“Two kids to find and two of us, it would be quicker and easier if we take one each” Jack said, 

“Three of us!” Shena’s voice came from their left and they both turned to look at her, 

“This is my fault, if I hadn’t allowed myself to fall for Ryan then the Arbiter would have had no reason to take him, but because he kissed me the Arbiter took him, so it’s my fault and I have to get him back!” Shena said her voice cracking as she said it, Jack smiled under his mask, even Tik clicked her mandibles at this, then she walked up to her and placed a big hand on the young girl’s shoulder, 

“Do you truly love my son?” she asked in a very direct but slightly softer voice than she had been using, Shena looked at the proud matriarch of the Mason clan and ex member of her own clan and something her uncle had told her popped into her head, ‘If you feel strongly about something always declare it with a loud and proud voice so that those that hear you know your conviction’ he’d said, she knew that now was the time for her voice to be heard, she’d been toying with these new and exciting feelings in her head and her heart but now it was time to give them a voice, 

“I Shena Black Claw full blooded huntress and former member of the Shadow claw clan do herby lay my heart claim to the full blooded hunter Ryan Mason of the proud clan Mason, I hereby declare my love for him and my intent to make him my life mate” she said in the loudest voice she could muster, she was as nervous as she’d ever been in her life to make a statement like this in front of a clan Matriarch, but it was what her customs dictated and she knew that her feelings for Ryan were not just whimsical, they were as true as every beat of her heart.

Upon hearing the young girl’s loud declaration of love for her son and hearing the pride in her voice Tik eleth clicked her mandibles in acknowledgement, although she’d only known him a few days it was clear to her that this girl did indeed carry her son’s heart with her own, just like her she’d fallen in love at first sight and she’d been lucky enough to meet her soul mate at such an early age but there was one last point that needed clarifying before she could do her duty as clan Matriarch, normally the male would be present during such a declaration, but in his stead there was another here who knew her son’s heart and mind better than any other as he had been in there, so she turned to Jack, he simply nodded showing her that he knew that Ryan would accept this pledge had he been present as he’d been in Ryan’s mind and he knew how he felt about this girl, she smiled below her mask, then she turned and placed both of her hands on her shoulders, “Shena Black Crest despite your youth you have respected our customs and our ways with the honor expected of all Yaujta, so I Tik eleth Mason Matriarch of the proud clan Mason hereby acknowledge your heart claim to my son and bless it, once we retrieve my son from the hands of the Arbiter you will be accepted into our clan with open arms” she said in a loud and very proud voice.

Shena couldn’t believe it, she’d been terrified that Tik eleth was going to rip her heart from her chest and show it to her before she dies, but she’d just not only accepted her claim to Ryan but had blessed it, not only that she’d also extended her a place within their clan when this was all over so even if she had been exiled by the Shadow Claw clan she would now have a new home, she didn’t know what to say to this and she could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes, then as Tik eleth released her Jack suddenly stepped up to her, his white armor gave him a mighty presence and that white cloak still swirled around him like fire, he was holding out something to her.

“Take this young one may it serve you like it’s served me” he said holding out what appeared to be a rather long thin sword of some kind to her, she reached out and took it and the second her hand touched the handle she felt a buzzing coming from it that seemed to pierce her very soul before it stopped, Jack removed his mask and smiled at her, “It has accepted you that means your heart is pure” he said, 

“Accepted me?” she asked looking confused, Jack pointed at the long sword in its black scabbard, on the hilt there was a large white winged animal,

“That’s no ordinary sword young one but rather a rather famous one in my culture, that there is the sword of Perseus, a legendary human Dream Warrior, it took it from the bad bloods many years ago” he said, Shena looked at the sword and instantly she felt a flash of its power buzzing through her and she knew that Jack spoke the truth, “Here and one other gift for you” he said holding out his hand as if he meant to shake hers, without thinking she took it and instantly felt a flash of images and memories flooding into her mind, it was over before she was even capable of thinking of pulling away from him, “That should show you the best ways to use the sword” he said and to her surprise she realized now that when she touched the handle it felt as comfortable as if she’d been born holding it, 

“Thank you but I am not worthy of such a gift” she said holding the sword out to him for him to take back, he shook his head,

“If you’re going to be my daughter in law then you are going to learn that we Mason’s never take back that which was given as a gift and that goes double for love, once given it is never taken back, now I know you’ve won my son’s heart and when I looked into your mind I saw that he has won yours too, that which is given is never taken back” he said smiling, Shena smiled shyly and again felt the tears sting her eyes, “Right well here’s the plan as I see it, you two can team up and go after Ryan and I will stay here and hunt down Sela eleth” Jack said, Tik eleth now looked at him confused as to where that had come from, 

“It makes the most sense, as your old clan you would know them best and with young Shena here eager to redeem her honor and fight for her mate sending you both after Ryan is the best course, while I stay here and track the humans who took Sela” he said, Tik clicked her mandibles as she thought this over before nodding her head in agreement, then she walked over to Jack and pulled him into a tight embrace while stroking her mandibles over his face, 

“Bring our daughter back and punish those who took her my mate” she said in a low voice, Jack reached up and kissed Tik’s inner mouth, 

“I will my love you can count on it” he said as they broke their kiss, Tik nodded to him and placed her hunting mask back on her face, then she turned to Shena and gestured for her to follow, Shena took one last look at the ooman who had just become her step father, he smiled at her one last time before placing his own mask back on and turning away and heading towards the forest, as she watched she saw some sort of invisible force start swirling around him, to her eyes it looked like heat haze coming off him in waves, even the grass seemed to bow out of his way like it was being blown away from him as he moved even though there was no breeze to move it, birds took to their wings as he approached and she was sure she could see animals in the forest fleeing, suddenly a hand appeared on her shoulder, 

“You see it too don’t you?” Tik eleth’s voice asked from her side,

“What is it?” Shena asked in a stunned voice, 

“You’re witnessing the righteous rage of a Dream Warrior young one, it affects everything around him, it’s like he becomes a walking storm, I’ve only ever seen it twice myself and both times it was when our cubs were at risk, when he’s in this state nothing in this plain of existence will stop him from achieving his goals, he can and will do the impossible to protect the ones he loves, so don’t worry about him, worry about whoever is stupid enough to get in his way” Tik eleth said as she watched her beloved disappear into the forest, the image instantly made Shena think of Ryan and the way he’d fought the bad blood to protect her, now she knew what it was, “Come now young one, we have an Arbiter to punish” Tik eleth said suddenly from her side and she turned and placed her mask back on her face before nodding, then they both set off at high speed towards where Tik had left her ship.


	33. A Father's Love

Sela eleth’s head felt like it had a thousand mini kiande amedha scrambling around screeching inside it, but eventually she was able to force her eyes to open and she waited for them to actually focus to survey her surroundings, she appeared to be laid on some sort of straw mat in what appeared to be a cave of some kind, she tried to move to take a look around but she couldn’t manage more than to twist her head around, it took her a few seconds to realize that both her wrists and her legs were bound together, that’s when the memories of being hit with the stun weapon after surviving the Arbiter’s parting shot came flooding back to her, she remembered the pain and her muscles spasming out of control as the small darts hit her in the chest. 

Turning her head to try and look around herself she noticed that her hunting mask had been removed from her face as her night vision was nearly nonexistent, if wasn’t for a couple of small candles burning on a ledge off to her left there would have been next to no light in here what so ever, that’s when she noticed that there was someone sat watching her from the shadows directly next to the small candles.

The shadowed figure noticed she was awake and stood up but they stayed in the shadows just out of her sight, “Looks like our friend is finally awake” the person said in a distinctly masculine voice, but it wasn’t that that caught Sela’s attention, it was the fact the person spoke in perfect ooman.

Suddenly she heard a series of footsteps coming closer to her from behind her where she couldn’t see because of her restraints, then a set of boots came around her from her left and stood directly in front of her, because she was bound on her front she wasn’t able to look directly up and see the person’s face, “Never seen one of these things go down so easily from a Taser hit before, mind you now that I think about it I’ve never seen one this small before either” the second voice said, this one sounded much more feminine than the other one, 

“Given its shape I’d say it’s female but I was always led to believe that the females were much bigger than the males” the male voice said without moving from the shadows,

“Must be a young one or something, maybe some of these sick fucks bring their kids along with them when they hunt, you know like a day trip to the fucking zoo to see the fucking wildlife?” the female said with obvious venom in her voice, 

“Will you two pipe down? You get any louder and you’re gonna give away our position” a third voice said from somewhere off to Sela’s right, this one was most definitely male by how deep and gruff it was, 

“Sorry boss” the male in the shadows said,

“Sorry boss but you know how angry these things make me” the female said, 

“They make us all mad Angel but the last thing we need is this thing’s parents hearing us and bursting in here shooting the place up” the third male said, 

“So now we have it what are we going to do with it boss?” the male in the shadows asked,

“Simple we’re going to get as much intel as we can from it, maybe it has a ship we can use or maybe we can use it as a bargaining chip to get the fuck off this rock” the other male said, then he walked around in front of Sela and bent down to get a good look at her, he was about her father’s age, dressed in the same military fatigues that her Matriarch had described to her from when she’d first met him, his hair was a kind of sandy yellow and his square jaw was pocked with a verity of small scars, but by far the worst thing about him were his eyes, his eyes were just two dark balls of pure hate and it was directed at her.

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Jack got a distinct feeling of both nostalgia and familiarity with the jungle he now ran through, the all too familiar plants and trees he passed by at high speed like a whirlwind of color with a bleakness thrown in to it, the familiar humidity making him sweat underneath his armor as he ran, he jumped over roots and tufts that were exposed from the ground as he followed a game trail through the trees, just above the ground hovered a green and yellow swirling smoke like trail, it had appeared shortly after he’d appealed to the spirits for aid in finding Sela eleth.  
As he ran he found himself wondering about the humans that had taken his daughter captive, his first concern was that she was ok and unhurt and he swore to himself that if they had brought any harm to her human or not he would extract a painful vengeance, but he found himself wondering how they’d got here, were they survivors like him? Or were they something else? Whatever they were they were talented at leaving no sign, while they’d left plenty at the abduction site, here there was nothing, no boot prints, so snapped twigs or disturbed plants, no nothing. 

In fact, if it wasn’t for Jack’s Dream Warrior senses there would have been nothing for him to follow at all, this is what led him to believe that they were indeed survivors of the bad blood abductions, he knew that he wasn’t the only one they’d taken obviously by the trail of dead humans that Tik had found while they’d both been trapped here, they had obviously learned that to survive here you had to be completely invisible, there was no sign or marks which given that they were carrying an unconscious girl with them while they moved was rather impressive, Jack found himself rather impressed with their skills as a whole given that he knew that surviving here was no mean feat and he’d had the aid and assistance of a full blooded Yaujta huntress while he’d been here.

He found himself wondering how long they had been here? Were they here when he’d been dropped in or had they come after him? The evidence he’d seen when he’d been on the clan ship that he and Tik had destroyed had shown him that this bad blood clan had been doing this for a very long time throughout human history, that then got him wondering if they had been responsible for any of the famous disappearances throughout human history, he already knew that they’d taken Perseus who he’d always believed was a Greek myth and legend, but the katana sword that he’d found on the clan ship had turned out to be no ordinary sword, it was the personal sword of the Greek legend. 

Jack had no idea how a Japanese style katana sword had become the personal weapon of a Greek hero but it had and it was seriously powerful in the right hands, it gave the user the confidence required to get the job done, it had definitely been designed for a Dream Warrior as it always knew the heart of the one who wielded it, which is exactly why he’d chosen to give it to Shena Black Crest, the second he’d seen her he’d seen the pure white fire of her aura swirling around her and he’d known her heart and the moment he touched her, he’d seen the determination she had to prove herself plus her desperation to be accepted for who she was, this was a struggle that reminded him so much of Tik’s own struggle and he felt the same sympathy for her that he’d felt for the woman he loved, he’d figured that by placing this legendary weapon in her hands that although she wasn’t a fellow Dream Warrior that her heart would be pure enough for the sword to accept her as its owner, turned out he was bang on the money and it had bonded with her, hopefully this would give her the confidence she needed to get the job done and to get Ryan back and to also deal with Tik when she went into full on mama bear rampage mode which when she caught up with the Arbiter.

The thought of what was in store for that poor Arbiter that had taken Ryan when Tik caught up with him made Jack smile, he knew that when it came to her cubs Tik eleth was a force of nature and just like a force of nature you didn’t fuck with them, if she let him live Jack didn’t think he’d be judging anyone any time soon.

A large ridge caught Jack’s attention off to his right as he ran, the view was absolutely spectacular, from where he was he could see over into the jungle for miles and with the sun over the canopy it was showing off all the amazing colors of the trees and plants creating a living rainbow below him that shimmered in the humidity and heat haze, it was at that point he noticed just where the trail he was following was taking him and he stopped, the long smoke like trail was winding itself through the jungle but it was easily visible to him from up here, it led right through the jungle to what appeared to be a large cliff off to the left, Jack noticed that the smoke was leading up the cliff face to a point where it just seemed to stop and disappear, so Jack took his rifle from his shoulder and picking a spot on the cliff he laid down and set up to observe where the trail stopped.

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“So I’m going to assume that you can understand what I am saying to you” the scarred male ooman who was obviously the leader of the group said kneeling down in front of Sela eleth, his accent sounded very similar to her father’s, she debated with herself on whether it would be wise to answer him or not,

“I asked you a fucking question” the man growled in his low menacing voice, she decided it couldn’t do her any harm to speak to them, it wasn’t like she could actually tell them anything anyway,

“Yes I understand you perfectly” she replied in a quiet voice, this caused both his eye brows to shoot up on his head in surprise, 

“Holy shit her English is better than yours Cortez” Angel said from her left in a surprised voice, 

“Fuck you Angel” the male called Cortez replied from the shadows,

“Well that’s going to make things easier, but then we have seen these things mimic human speech in their traps before” the leader said I his gravelly voice, being referred to as a thing caused Sela eleth’s anger to flash, 

“I am not a pauking thing! My name is Sela eleth proud full blooded huntress of the clan Mason” she yelled at him while writhing trying to break free of her restraints, Angel snorted from behind their leader,

“Looks like you struck a nerve there boss, guess she doesn’t like being called names, did it hurt your itty bitty feelings crab face?” she said in a scornful voice, Sela eleth growled she was really starting to dislike this female, 

“Pipe down Angel” the boss said glancing over his shoulder at the female ooman, she just snorted again and walked off a little way over to where the male called Cortez was stood, the leader refocused his attention on Sela eleth but this time his eyes had changed, instead of just the pure hate that had imbued them only moments ago now there was hint of curiosity in them as well, “Well Sela eleth do you know why you’re still alive and why we didn’t just kill you when we found you?” he asked in a low voice, 

“You want me to aid you in getting off this planet” she replied looking at him, he nodded slowly, 

“That’s right, you’re going to show us exactly where your kind keeps their ships hidden on this fucking rock, then you are going to have the same joy that we had as you watch us fly off into the fucking sunset and leave your ass here to die” he said,

“I can’t show you where the ships are” she replied, his face contorted into a snarl,

“It wasn’t a request, you are going to show us where the ships are hidden or I’m going to let Angel here skin you alive like your kind has done to so many of mine” he growled, suddenly the anger that Sela eleth had been feeling was replaced by a distinct feeling of sadness, she realized that these oomans had been brought here against their will to be hunted just like she had,

“I can’t show you because I don’t know, I was brought here too, I was thrown out of a ship and left here to be hunted like a pauking animal by the pauking bad bloods the same as you” she said in a quiet voice, 

“Fucking liar you are one of them!!” Angel suddenly yelled jumping forwards like she was going to land a blow on the tied up girl, the leader held up a hand in front of her to stop her forward charge and she started grumbling to herself, 

“Bad bloods? What are they?” the leader asked,

“They are scum, Yaujta criminals that have no respect for the laws and customs of their people, they care nothing for honor or fairness only for glory and what they can take” she spat with real venom in her voice, it was enough to catch the leader’s attention, 

“Yaujta is that the name of your race?” he asked, Sela eleth nodded,

“Although I am not a full blood Yaujta, I am a half blood” she replied, Angel got frustrated again, 

“Boss why are you listening to this shit? She’d just distracting you, let me at her for five fucking minutes and I’ll get her to tell us where they keep the fucking ships!!” she yelled, this time the leader stood up and turned around, 

“Do you not fucking get it Angel!? The more we know the better our chances of surviving this fucking nightmare! All intel is fucking good intel, never over look any detail no matter how small it is” he said, Angel snorted at him again,

“That fucking SAS mentor of yours teach you that as well?” she asked, this time the leader’s reaction was a bit more extreme, he spun around with lightning speed and put a knife to her throat in a spilt second, this caused Angel’s eyes to nearly pop out of her head in shock, this was the first time that Sela eleth got a good look at the female, she was about six foot tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes, she would have been rather pretty except for the scar that ran right through her right cheek and over her right eye,

“Don’t you ever bad mouth him in front of me understand? That man was the best soldier I have ever known, he killed more Taliban and terrorists on his own than every one of us times five” he said in a very low very dangerous growl, 

“So where is he now then huh?” Angel replied in a choked voice, the leader seemed to sag under the weight of that question, 

“I wish I knew, he went into the jungle one day hunting some Cartel drug lord, got the fucker but just disappeared without a trace, maybe he had enough and just walked off into the jungle, or maybe they got him before he was able to get away, who knows? But that doesn’t change the fact that Jack Mason was the best sniper have ever known and the best friend a man could ask for, the man taught me everything I know” he said in a very weary voice, that last part caused Sela eleth’s heart to skip a few beats, could he really be talking about her beloved father? 

The leader released Angel from his grip and turned back to Sela eleth and kneeled back down in front of her, her mind was racing at a million miles an hour now, she knew it wasn’t smart and she knew that the chances of him believing her was slim, but if the person that he was talking about was indeed her father than this was her chance to maybe get out of this without being harmed, “He didn’t disappear and he wasn’t killed” she said quietly, the leader’s eyes locked on to her and she saw anger building in them, 

“What did you say?” he asked in a low menacing tone,

“I said he didn’t walk off into the jungle and he wasn’t killed, he was taken by the bad bloods to be hunted, just like all of us” she said, the leader flashed forwards with amazing speed and grabbed Sela’s face with a painfully tight grip, he yanked her head up and placed his knife to her throat, 

“How the fuck could you know who the hell I’m talking about? And I suggest choosing your answer very carefully or you might find yourself minus a few of those things on your face very shortly” he said with his voice full of venom, Sela took a deep breath, well as deep a breath as she could take with his hand clamped round her throat, 

“You are talking about Jack Mason, ooman master sniper from the twenty second Special Air Service regiment of the UK” she said in a choked voice, the details seemed to intrigue him,

“How could you possibly know that?” he spat in a low voice squeezing harder on her throat, Sela winced in pain, 

“Because he’s my father” she managed to say through gasps of air.

The startled ooman leader released her and she dropped back onto the floor banging her head painfully as she did, “That’s not fucking possible! You’re a fucking alien there’s no fucking way that you are Jack Mason’s daughter! He’s fucking dead!!” he yelled stepping back from her, then the rage over came him again and he flew forwards and dragged her up right holding her off the ground by her throat and chest straps, “No, you’re trying to play with my fucking head just like all of your kind do, with those imitation traps of yours, this is just another one of your tricks!!” he yelled then he pulled the knife up and showed that he was going to cut off one of her mandibles, Sela’s heart was pounding in her chest like a hammer on an anvil, her mind was racing as this crazy ooman was about to maim her, then a thought hit her like a lightening flash, 

“My eyes!!” she screamed before he was able to cut into her flesh, the ooman stopped and looked at her curiously, 

“What did you say?” he asked,  
“My eyes look at my eyes” she said in a pleading voice, the ooman looked confused but he stopped what he was doing, then he motioned with his knife hand to one of the others for them to bring a light over to him, the male called Cortez pulled a candle free and brought it over, the leader took it and held it up to Sela’s face and immediately his face froze.

“Boss?” Cortez asked from his side, 

“I’d recognize those eyes anywhere” he said quietly in a voice that was in total an utter shock and disbelief at what he was seeing, 

“That’s not possible boss and you know it! She’s a fucking alien!! She’s just trying to get inside your head again and if you can’t fucking see that then I guess I’m going to have to do it!!” Angel yelled and rushed forwards with her knife drawn, the leader turned and as he did he dropped Sela eleth painfully to the ground, he raised his knife to defend against Angel’s rush attack but she never reached him, before she was able to get half way a long black dart appeared in the side of her neck and she slammed face first into the ground and slid along the floor on her face, “What the fuck I can’t fucking move!!” she yelled, the leader looked up in confusion and as he did he saw a figure move through the shadows behind Cortez, 

“Cortez behind you!!” he yelled before looking down and trying to draw his pistol from his holster but he was too late, as he looked back up Cortez was slumped on the floor and he found himself looking right at a very close up view of a very sharp blade only millimeters from his face, 

“Wouldn’t do that if I was you” a very familiar voice said, the man froze solid, the figure circled around him keeping the blade right in front of his face till he stepped out into the light of the candle, he was dressed in all white and looked like one of the hunters but at the same time different somehow, 

“I-I-I-It can’t be!” the leader exclaimed, suddenly Sela eleth saw the figure too and she also recognized the voice,

“Father!!!” she yelled from the floor desperately trying to free herself and at the same time trying to move towards him while going a very good impression of a Yaujta caterpillar, the man reached up with his free hand and pulled his mask from his face, revealing the face of the man that he’d never thought he was never going to see again, the leader collapsed to his knees in shock and disbelief as Jack Mason the man that had taught him everything he knew stood before him dressed in Alien armor holding a sword, 

“So Millar, are you going to cut my daughter free or am I going to have to kick your arse and do it myself?” Jack asked in a half serious half joking voice, without a word Millar turned and cut the ropes restraining Sela eleth at the top and bottom, she quickly kicked herself free of them and was on her feet like a shot knocking Miller over in the process, as he watched from the floor she’d run the entire length of the room and thrown herself into Jack’s outstretched arms, he instantly dropped the sword and threw his arms around the crying young Yaujta girl, “Shhhh now, it’s ok now baby, daddy’s here you’re safe now” he said in a soothing voice as his beloved daughter sobbed her young heart out into his chest with sheer happiness at being reunited with him, 

“I knew you’d come for us” she said through the sobs into his chest as she clung to him like her life depended on it, Jack stroked the back of his beloved daughter’s head, taking massive relief in feeling her soft hair once again,

“And I always will baby” he said feeling tears of his own welling up at the happiness that he had been reunited with his beloved daughter and the sheer relief that she appeared to be unharmed. After she’d finished crying Jack dried his daughter’s eyes and she smiled at him happily, then slowly he released her and turned to Millar who was sat on the floor watching this emotional father daughter reunion in stunned silence, “I think we have a fair bit to talk about” he said, Millar simply nodded in a dumb founded silence, his brain was still struggling to comprehend what he’d just witnessed, but he got the distinct feeling that this was about to get even harder to understand, Jack walked towards him and outstretched a hand to him, he took it and was pulled instantly to his feet, “So let’s get to it then shall we?” Jack said.


	34. Trials

The whole world felt like it was made of liquid, as he tried in vain to focus Ryan’s vision wobbled and swirled like he was looking through murky water. 

He’d dragged his mind out of the void that it seemed to have been plunged into only to find that most of his senses seemed to have been left back in there, it had taken him a while to drag them back out as well and kinda felt like he was having to put his mind back together piece by piece.   
First off it had been his hearing, all he’d been able to hear was a pulsing whine noise which while it had been very annoying had helped him to pull his mind together, then his sense of smell returned and he smelt damp and musty, next up had been touch and he’d felt that he was on a cold hard surface with what appeared to be some form of restrains on both his ankles and wrists, they were heavy and kinda weighed his arms and legs down, now was sight and this was being the most difficult so far.

Eventually Ryan’s senses managed to reconnect and he was able to see the room he was currently in, he appeared to be in some sort of cell, it was dark and rather dank in here. He could see large chains holding his wrists and ankles down, for the life of him he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten in here, the last thing he remembered was kissing with Sheena and then everything when black, his head was pounding like someone was hitting a drum in his mind and it made it difficult to focus properly, as he was trying to focus he heard footsteps approaching, the boomed seeming to echo off all the walls so that he couldn’t actually tell what direction they were coming from, but that was a question that was swiftly answered.

As Ryan turned his head he noticed a large male standing behind a large cage door that sectioned his cell off from where ever he was now, the male wore some form of ceremonial armor that he recognized as Yaujta from his Matriarch’s tales, it was black and silver over lapping plates that made their way up from his waist to his chest where a large crested breast plate sat, the markings were the same one’s that Sheena had tattooed on her head.  
The male had two large pauldrons covering his shoulders where dual plasma casters sat in an inactive state, his face was covered by a silver colored decorated hunting mask that seemed to have teeth of some kind glued to it, he seemed to have some sort of leather coat or cape draped over his back, it was the type that his father was rather fond of and it flowed all the way down his back to his ankles.

“So you’re finally awake” the male said in a gruff voice, Ryan looked at him and a billowing white and grey aura swirled around him, this meant that he wasn’t evil but Ryan felt that caution would be best advised here, 

“Who are you? And why have you done this to me?” he asked trying to turn around and sit up so that he could face the door, it was a serious effort considering the weight of the chains restraining him, but determination made him achieve it and he finally got himself up right into a sitting position.

“I am Fen Ra Sharna Arbiter of the honored Shadow Claw clan and you are here to face your trial” the male said in a gruff voice, this confused Ryan,

“Trial? Trial for what? I have committed no crime” he said, the Arbiter huffed behind his mask,

“Your crimes are existence and corrupting one of our clan” Fen replied, this confused Ryan for only a moment before he realized what he meant, 

“So wait, you’re going to persecute me for merely existing!? And corrupting one of your clan? Who the hell did I corrupt!?” Ryan yelled his anger building at the sheer audacity of this, Fen Ra Sharna reached up with both hands and with a swift movement pulled his mask from his face, it was the face of a very battle hardened warrior, full of scars from the many battles he’d weathered, his bright green eyes focused on the young half breed. 

“You corrupted Shena Black Crest daughter of the honorable Black Crest family, and in answer to your other question yes, your mere existence is an affront to the decency of our society, the Yaujta are a pure blood race and deviants who choose to mate with lesser species will be punished for their gall to defile Yaujta blood, in fact the only reason I didn’t kill you both where you were was because of her family’s status and yours as a Dream Warrior, so you’re to face trial for what you are while she had been exiled on that planet you were on for hers, she’s damn lucky she’s not dead, if it wasn’t for her family’s status she’d have been a head on my wall” Fen said, now it was Ryan’s turn to huff, in fact he confused Fen by bursting out into a fit of roaring laughter, Fen snarled at him.

“Why are you laughing half breed!!?” he roared through the bars of the cell hitting them with his armored fists as he did, slowly and laboriously Ryan got to his feet and shuffled up to the bars smiling at the massive Arbiter as he did, the heavy chains made every movement painful and difficult but he was determined to look the massive Arbiter in the eye as he said his next bit, 

“So let me get this straight, my crime is daring to exist and try to live a life that I had no choice in being given and for daring to fall in love with a member of your clan? And the only reason you didn’t kill us both is because her family hold a lot of power within the clan and because I’m a Dream Warrior?” he said still smiling through the bars, the big Arbiter snarled at him, 

“So? What’s your point?” the Arbiter snarled, Ryan grinned broadly drawing his mandibles up and retracting his lips to show off his teeth,

“Well don’t you see the double standards in your own actions?” he asked, Fen looked confused now, 

“What double standards?” he snarled as if he was being accused of corruption,

“Well you say I am a being that should not be allowed to exist because I symbolize the mixing of Yaujta blood with that of another lesser species, yet you don’t kill me like your so called moral honor dictates because I happen to be one of things that Yaujta revere, bit hypocritical don’t you think? On one hand you have your honor screaming at you that I am a symbol of deviancy that can’t be allowed to live because I could be used to show Yaujta everywhere that there is another way, but on the other hand you won’t kill me because I am also a symbol of what the Yaujta revere the most” Ryan said grinning at the big male.

Fen Ra Sharna had to admit the young half breed did have a point with that one, on one hand he was honor bound to kill him because he symbolized deviancy and yet on the other he couldn’t because of the fact that he was a Dream Warrior, 

“Then on the other point you have what you did to Shena and don’t get me wrong I’m damn grateful that you chose to leave the girl I love alive, but again with the double standards, you accuse her of deviancy because she dared to fall in love with someone that’s not fully Yaujta, I mean really? You’d have been perfectly fine with her living a life of misery and sadness, you turn a blind eye to all the humiliation and pain she suffered at the hands of her own kind, but the second she steps outside of your precious little box and dares to seek happiness and love for herself she’s condemned, your precious honor then dictates that you kill her, but you don’t because it would piss off her family, who are perfectly fine with her being left on a planet to die alone or worse to be caught and raped by bad bloods, no they don’t give a shit about that just as long as their precious honor is intact” Ryan spat, Fen Ra Sharna huffed again, he did have to admit that the young half breed did make a good point here, he’d always been a firm believer in the sanctity of the law, but it did seem to him that far too often things like status and power were factors in the rulings and people that were blatantly guilty got off either lightly or totally.

“You want to know something Arbiter?” Ryan said walking right up to the bars in almost a challenging manner, he knew the male wouldn’t be able to resist the challenge, the Arbiter stepped right up to the bars himself and looked right into his eyes, 

“What’s that then?” he growled in response,

“You look at me like I’m something vile or disgusting and you blatantly think that I should be ashamed of myself, but I’m not ashamed of myself or my family, I am a product of pure love between two beings that dared to live their lives the way they wanted to, without either of their species telling them that they couldn’t, they both sought happiness and love and they found it in each other and I’m damn proud to be the product of their love because I know no matter what that I am their joy as they are mine” Ryan said, Fen growled at the boy’s defiant words, but he could see the fire and determination in the boy’s bright eyes, in fact he was staring so intently at the boy’s eyes that he didn’t notice his hands moving till it was too late.

Ryan’s hands shot out though the bars and seized the large male’s exposed wrists and used the chains to loop around them to hold his hands in place so that he couldn’t pull away, Fen looked down and tried to remove his hands but found that he couldn’t because of the heavy chains looped around his wrists, “What are you doing!?” he demanded, Ryan smiled slyly in response,   
“You want to judge me for who I am? Then see who I am, all of it” he replied, then as he looked at Fen his eye’s flashed from purple to green and suddenly Fen’s mind was flooded with images and emotions that were not his own as Ryan invaded his mind.

Fen Ra Sharna stood frozen in place as the young Dream Warrior invaded his mind, he’d heard the stories of the Dream Warriors and their legendry powers but this was the first time he’d ever seen one up close, the entirety of the young teenager’s life flashed through his mind’s eye in a fast forward, he saw everything the boy had lived and felt everything that he had felt, every triumph every failure, everything.

Then just as suddenly as it started it finished, Ryan sagged backwards and as he regained his senses Fen removed the looped chains from around his wrists, this caused Ryan to fall down backwards onto his arse, Fen grabbed the bars in his hands and looked though the bars at the young Dream Warrior as he sat panting on the floor, “What the pauk did you just do to me!!?” he roared at the boy, Ryan opened his eyes and looked up at the big male and to his surprise he saw tears streaming down his face, 

“Simple, I showed you the life that you would condemn in its entirety” he said, 

“Take it back!!” Fen said his voice sounding desperate as he reached through the bars for the young Dream Warrior, the feelings and thoughts that were spinning through his mind were now a mixture of his own and the young boy’s they were entwining like colored smoke in his mind infusing together to become one, the feelings and thoughts scared him because of how different from his own they were but how familiar they felt, he’d seen everything from the joys of hunting with the boy’s mother who felt rather familiar to him to the intensity of the love he felt for the young Black Crest girl, 

“What is done cannot be undone, embrace it Arbiter, you judge others for daring to be different from your prescribed life in a box, this is what it feels like when the box is taken away, welcome to my life” Ryan panted, Fen slammed his fist against the bars hard enough to cause the metal to dent and the boom of it to echo though out the prison area, then with that he turned and walked away from the young boy as fast as he could, he couldn’t bare to look at him any longer, his feelings were a totally jumbled mess now, on one hand he was seeing the things that he’d always seen, but now in his mind was another voice and it was questioning everything he’d every believed in, but what scared him the most was the fact that the voice wasn’t the boy’s, it was his own.

Ryan panted hard as he watched the Arbiter walk off in a hurry, he smiled to himself as he watched him go, his plan had been successful but it had really taken it out of him, he knew that right now the Arbiter was questioning everything he’d ever believed in, this would keep him on the back foot for a while. Ryan struggled to right himself, this memory transference lark was pretty useful even if it did knock him for six, it didn’t help that he’d really over exerted himself this time as not only had he flooded the Arbiter’s mind with his life, but he’d torn everything out of his mind at the same time, now Ryan knew everything he did, all he had to do was organize these memories and he’d be able to use them to figure his way out of this place.

Fen Ra Sharna proud Arbiter of the Shadow Claw clan sat in his quarters aboard the clan ship, no matter what he did the tears wouldn’t stop, his mind was like a tornado of thoughts and emotions, his mind kept flashing through all the people what he’d judged on behalf of the clan, he’d always prided himself on his ability to remember every single judgement that he’d passed and every life that he’d taken in the name of honor, but now that little voice in the back of his mind was tearing apart everything that he’d held as sacred, he saw the faces of the people that he’d killed for nothing more than daring to be different, or for falling in love with someone that they shouldn’t like a member of another species, at the time he’d felt justified and honored to have been chosen to uphold the honor of the clan and the sanctity of the Yaujta species by hunting down these deviants, but now having seen the happiness and the joy that this young boy had experienced in his short life, he’d seen the love and care that his ooman father had showered on him, he’d seen the fact that this ooman had taught him what honor truly was in protecting the one’s you care about and standing up for those that couldn’t defend themselves, he’d also seen the fact that this ooman was also a Dream Warrior, a fact that rocked him to his very core, the most revered and prestigious of Yaujta hunters and this ooman was one, not a single part of him was Yaujta and he was one of the revered, how was this even remotely possible? 

But it was in the boy’s memories as clear as day, as was the ooman’s love for his son and for his family, the boy’s memories were filled with images not only from his mind but those that his father had shared with him when he’d discovered that he too was a Dream Warrior and he had melded with him, they showed of the way the ooman had showered the Yaujta female that was the boy’s mother with love and affection and the way he fought for her with all of his strength, this ooman male was like a force of nature, he possessed strength that he should not have, but he was a being of true honor and loyalty, he was like a pure embodiment of what every true Yaujta aspires to be, but what he saw also told him that this ooman male was coming and he got the distinct feeling that with all his power and strength there wasn’t going to be a single thing they could do to stop him from reclaiming what was his, but then Fen had a startling realization, he didn’t want to.

It was at that exact moment that Fen Ra Sharna’s world fell apart, everything he’d believed in had been a constructed lie, all the so-called ‘truths’ that he’d clung to, they were constructs to preserve the Yaujta way of life and they were merely controls put in place to keep him and the others in line. 

Careful constructs and belief’s put in place by those with power over thousands of years to construct a society based on the morals and values of others, controls so severe that they would take the lives of any and all who dared to step outside of the boundaries of what these few saw as moral and decent, all to show others that these things were wrong and to serve as an example to keep others in line, all these years he’d been a puppet of this system, suddenly a memory sprung into his mind, it was of a hunt two hundred years ago where he’d hunted down a rouge young blood who’d run off with a Kemlin girl.   
The Kemlin’s were a sentient reptilian species, he remembered the happiness he’s felt as he’d caught up with them and killed them both, but now he saw the young girl’s face in his mind as clear as glass, he saw the pain and fear and horror in her eyes as he struck down the young male, she didn’t even care that she herself was bleeding to death from the wound he’d inflicted, she was more pained by the fact he’d struck down the man she loved and it all suddenly made complete sense to him, what had he done? Destroying something so beautiful and pure was nothing short of a travesty, all for a belief based on lies, yet here he was doing it all over again, this had to stop.

In his cell Ryan was deep in thought as he fought his way through the mass of memories that he’d torn from the Arbiter’s mind, there was so much pain and so much hate in here, iit took all of his strength to keep himself from falling into the void that the Arbiter’s mind had opened in his own, it took all of his resolve to remain who he was, now he knew the true power of Memory transference, not only could it allow you to show another your point of view, but it allowed them to show you their but it could also be used to change another’s mind in its entirety and it scared Ryan, but he fought through all the darkness and pain that man had caused and so far he’d gotten the lay out of the clan ship out of the jumble, also in there was where the weapons were kept, the codes for the doors and a few other useful things, but while he was doing this he felt something strange, a crawling on his skin, it was like he was being watched.

Ryan opened his eyes and there in front of him sat a young Yaujta woman, she was dressed all in white and was strikingly beautiful, an aura billowed around he like non he’d ever seen before, it was pure silver and was the same color as her eyes, “Errrr where did you come from and how did you get in here?” Ryan asked in a rather surprised voice, the young Yaujta woman smiled at him broadly, 

“I’ve always been here Ryan, watching over you from the very beginning” she said in a voice that was so sweet sounding it was like liquid honey being poured into your ear, seeing the look of confusion on his face the young woman stood up, “Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Paya” she said causing Ryan’s mandibles and mouth to literally fall open, standing before him was none other than the goddess of the hunt herself.


	35. Old Friends New Allies

Millar sat on the ground with his head in his hands looking at his long lost friend in total disbelief, Jack had just finished explaining what had happened to him over the last fourteen years, the whole thing made his head spin out of control, it was like some sort of weird acid trip and a nightmare combined all into one. Millar remembered the first time he’d met Jack Mason with such vivid clarity it could have happened just yesterday and not all those years ago.

Back then Frank Millar had been a young fresh faced Marine, he’d been fast tracked by his superiors to the USMC sniper school because of his exceptional marksmanship, all the way through boot camp his instructors had been impressed with his performance and had told him that he would go far, of course this had given him a rather cocky attitude thinking he was real hot shit, then he met him and everything changed.

Millar had been sat with the other recruits attending one of the tediously long lectures , this one had been on the importance of effective camouflage and how a good sniper blends into their surroundings and learns to adapt their camouflage on the fly, he remembered looking down the line of other recruits at the other equally bored faces and feeling kinda weirded out by the fact that there were fifteen of them sat there in the line, there had only been fourteen the day before, the instructor had literally just finished saying that the best snipers could blend into any environment and you’d never even know that they were there, then he pointed his long board pointer at the new guy, “Isn’t that right Dan?” he said and at that point Dan’s head exploded.

Every single one of the recruits dove for cover under their foldaway chairs, they were all screaming various things, some called for medics although it was pretty clear that Dan was well beyond any type of help given that his head no longer existed, others were screaming ‘Sniper’ at the tops of their lungs, all Miller remembered properly about that exact moment was the look of amusement on his instructors face, he was positively pissing himself despite the face one of his student’s head’s had literally just been blown off, then he turned and spoke into a concealed mic in his sleeve, it was at that point that everyone realized that they’d been set up, Dan was a dummy.

“I hope you were all paying attention here, I don’t want Lieutenant Dan’s sacrifice here to be in vain” the instructor said pointing at the headless dummy still sat in its chair, the trainees were slowly picking themselves up off the floor when a jeep pulled up with a figure sat in the passenger seat in a full ghille suit, he was holding a Accuracy International AU Magnum against his shoulder as he stepped out of the passenger seat, the instructor walked up to the figure with his hand outstretched, “Damn fine work as always Jack, how far this time?” he said as she shook the ghille suited figure’s hand, 

“Ahh just a mile today didn’t feel like climbing all the way up that damn hill” the figure said in a British accent, then the instructor turned to face his confused trainees, 

“Let me introduce Sargent Jack Mason of the British Special Air Service and one of the best shooters on this fucking planet even if he does come from the wrong side of the pond” the instructor said with a sly grin, the figure lifted up the light green veil of his ghille suit to reveal his face and the first thing that caught Millar’s attention was the he had the brightest blue eyes that he’d ever seen in his life, in fact he noticed both of the female trainee’s jaw’s drop open as they got a look at the man beneath the camo, it was obvious they liked what they saw, 

“If it’s so wrong how come I always have to get my arse on a plane and fly five thousand miles just to show you fuckers how to shoot a gun?” Jack replied in a playful tone, the instructor roared with laughter before clapping the sniper on the back, then he turned back to his trainees, 

“I hope you all now realize the importance of concealment and I hope this gives you a glimpse into the power of a sniper on the battlefield, one person and one bullet can make a world of difference in a fight, not only does it mean you can limit collateral damage, where the chairforce would have you believe you need five hundred pounds of ordinance to take out one man, this man right here just proved that all it takes is one man and one bullet, an invisible enemy that can take you out at any second has a crippling effect on enemy’s morale, not one of you knew he was there or could see him, but he could see all of you and at one mile away he was able to put a single bullet through the head of one man leaving everyone else unaffected physically, mentally is quite another thing” the instructor said.

Millar remembered looking at this man and feeling a determination like he’d never known, he wanted to be just like him no matter what, after that he ran into him in a bar and the two of them struck up a fast friendship which resulted in Jack taking him under his wing and giving him pointers and tips as well as additional training, but the crowning achievement was that Jack chose him to be his spotter on a mission, this was his first live combat mission and the feeling he got while creeping through the jungle with this living legend among snipers was an indescribable one, but to add to that once they were in positon over watching a Taliban training camp Jack had let him take the shot that had taken out a major Taliban threat. 

That was his first kill as a professional sniper and it was all because of his friend and mentor, it was also Jack’s recommendation that had spring boarded him from the USMC first recon sniper team and into the Navy seals, he still remembered the day that he’d heard that his friend had gone missing in South America after taking out a cartel boss, his first instinct was to jump on a plane and go looking for his friend and with a few phone calls he and a team of three other snipers from across the world had gone into the jungle looking for their friend, it turned out that Jack had touched more than a few hearts in militaries across the world, with him on this little unauthorized incursion was a Russian Spetsnaz sniper, an Israeli and a Fin, all with close connections to Jack, after they’d found out that Millar was looking for their mutual friend they’d decided to team up and head into the jungle to bring their friend home, but after weeks of searching they found nothing and each came out with a sense of loss that they couldn’t put into words.

But for Millar that sense of loss had now been replaced with a mixture of joy and confusion, he’d been finally reunited with his long lost friend here on this alien world, only to find out that he was some sort of alien Knight with special powers and was married and had kids with one of the Alien race that had taken him and the others as prey, this was a lot to take in.

“And so while I’m here to get my daughter back my life mate Tik eleth and Shena Black Crest have gone to recover Ryan from the Arbiter” Jack said looking at his old friend across the candles which lit their little parlay circle, sat around them were Angel who had finally recovered from being hit with a paralyzing dart from Jack’s wrist launcher, a fact that she’d been real sore about till Jack had explained that he could have just as easily put a real bullet through her head, this had quieted her down somewhat, Cortez who still had a bit of a sore head from Jack striking him at the base of the skull with his armored fist but having seen the sheer amount of weapons that he was carrying was infinitely glad that he’d used his hand, then finally there was Sela eleth Jack’s hybrid daughter who was cuddled into her father’s side, he had his arm around the young girl’s shoulders and was gently stroking her hair in an affectionate way as he talked.

After he finished talking silence descended over the group as Jack waited for their reactions, Angel was the first and it was more of an explosion than a reaction, “You have got to be fucking kidding me!!! This is bullshit!!” she all but yelled jumping up from the group to begin pacing around them, Jack watched her closely and he felt his daughter’s grip tighten on him a bit, he knew the unpredictable woman made her nervous, 

“You’re a fucking race traitor!! These fucking monsters abducted you for amusement, for fucking sport, so they can mount your head on the fucking wall for all to see and laugh at how pathetic you are and what do you do? Fucking shack up with one and raise fucking mutant hybrid kids and play happy families!!” she yelled as she marched around, Jack sighed and he felt his daughter twitch with anger at being called a mutant hybrid, he patted his daughter’s shoulder and she looked up at him, with a slight movement of his head she released him and he slowly got to his feet, Angel watched him with a mask of anger painted over her face, 

“You can say what you like about me I really don’t give a flying fuck, but when you start insulting my kids you’re rapidly heading for a line that you really don’t want to cross” Jack said in a calm and collected voice, this made Millar nervous because he remembered what his friend’s temper was like, he’d once watched Jack beat the shit out of five massive Marines because they’d insulted Sandy, when Jack was shouting you were safe as that was his way of venting, but when he was calm and quiet, fucking run.

“Oh yeah and what are you going to do about it? I mean how the fuck could you even bring yourself to do it? I mean fucking look at them they look like someone jammed a fucking unturned crab into their mouths and attached skin to its fucking legs!! How the fuck can you bring yourself to love something that looks like that, let alone fuck one of them and produce kids!!” Angel yelled pointing at Sela eleth who’s eyes flashed with raw anger at the insult not only aimed at her but at her beloved Matriach, but before she could even blink her father had moved, he moved so fast across the room that if anyone had blinked they’d have missed it, he seized Angel by the throat and lifted her off her feet, 

“You really want to know how? Then why don’t I show you?” he said in a dark voice, then with a flash his bright blue eyes changed and Angel’s mind was flooded with imagery and memories, before the others could grab Jack and pull him off her the transfer was complete and Jack dropped her, Angel kneeled coughing at his feet from his grip on her throat, Cortez was the first to reach them, 

“What the fuck man!? She’s been through enough she’s lost everything, she was just angry and spouting, she didn’t mean it!” he said looking at Jack who just regarded him with a cool gaze, 

“I know” he said walking back to his daughter’s side and sitting back down, Cortez turned back to the coughing Angel and was amazed by what he saw, she was on her knees with tears streaming down her face, 

“I saw it, oh my god I saw all of it!” she said through choked tears,

“Saw what Angel?” Cortez asked looking at the crying woman,

“His life his whole damn life, I can still feel the pain and oh God the loss” Angel said wrapping her arms around herself and pulling herself into a hug, 

“What the fuck did you do to her man!?” Cortez yelled as he turned to look at Jack who just shrugged, 

“She wanted to know how I could love one of their kind, so I showed her” he said coolly, Cortez looked back at Angel who was now looking at Jack and Sela eleth with tears streaming down her face, 

“I’m so so so sorry, I never meant what I said, I was just angry, oh my god these feelings, they’re so strong, I can’t stop them, they feel like they’re going to consume me, how do you cope?” she asked,

“Because I don’t give up when shit gets hard, my love for those I care for drives me on and I don’t stop till they’re safe” Jack said,

“This love, it’s so strong, it’s burning me like fire” Angel said looking at her hands to make sure she wasn’t actually on fire.

Cortez looked confused as hell now, then Sela eleth caught his attention with a wave of her hand, “You just saw Dream Warrior memory transference, he literally just showed her his life and made her live it, every feeling, every thought, every fear, every love, she just got it all raw and unfiltered” she said to the confused man, Cortez’s eyes widened and he glanced back at Angel again, the tears were still flowing down her cheeks, then he looked back to Jack who was just sitting there quietly, 

“That’s not possible” Cortez said, Sela eleth nodded,

“It is for a Dream Warrior, they can reach right into the mind of another and see them for who they truly are, their hopes, their fears, their loves, they can reach into your mind and see them all, but they can also show you things and make you live them, like my father just made her live his life through his eyes” she said, as she finished Jack got back to his feet and walked over to where Angel was knelt, then he dropped down onto his haunches and placed a hand onto her shoulder, she looked up at him with her tear streaked face and instantly recoiled as she realized who’s hand was on her shoulder,

“Please no more!! Don’t show me anymore!! I can’t take it” she said in a rather pitiful voice, Jack smiled at her softly,

“As you saw my pains and my joys know that I have seen and felt yours too, so you are not alone any more” he said in a soft voice, then Angel’s face crumpled again and she threw her arms around his shoulders and sobbed into his shoulder.

After she had finished crying Jack released Angel and returned to his space in the group, he looked at his daughter to find her smiling at him, she’d always admired his compassion and his empathy, then Jack turned back to Millar, “So when were you going to tell me that are more of you?” he asked, both of Millar’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, Jack tapped the side of his head,   
“Dream Warrior remember, I saw Angel’s memories as clear as if they were my own” he said, Millar sighed, 

“Even after all these years you still have that damn flair for surprise” he said with a soft chuckle, Jack grinned, 

“What’s life without a little drama eh?” he said, Millar laughed and then it turned into a full on belly laugh, which felt really good because it had been so long since he’d had any reason to laugh, then he looked up at his grinning friend and his eyes flitted to his daughter who was also smiling at him and he could see the brightness in both their eyes, 

“I’m sorry for what we did to you Sela eleth, if I’d have known for a second that you were Jack’s flesh and blood…..” he started to say before she held up a hand, 

“It wasn’t something you could have known and after the horrors that have been perpetrated on you by my bad blooded kin I can sympathize and understand what you did” she said, Millar let out a soft chuckle again, 

“You definitely are your father’s daughter” he said, she smiled brightly, 

“I like to thinks so too” she said, then Millar took a deep breath and looked up at them, then he began to explain their full story more for Sela’s benefit than Jack’s as he already knew it thanks to Angel.

“So there are fifty oomans here!?” Sela eleth said flaring her mandibles and sounding shocked, Millar nodded somberly,

“The bad bloods as you call them have been doing this for a rather long time, the survivors of each hunt if there are any tend to find their way to us, or we find them and bring them to our camp, we have all ages and professions there, our youngest is just six and is a child prodigy our eldest is a sixty-year-old British Marine” he said, 

“But how do you keep that many hidden from their scans?” Sela eleth asked,

“It’s in a cave deep underground, my guess is that the rocks are laden with minerals that disrupt the scanners” Jack answered for him, Millar looked at him and nodded,

“Yeah I discovered a while ago that certain minerals on this planet play merry fuck with their sensors and scanners, makes us invisible to them” Millar said, then he took off his body armor and held it out to Jack who took it, “Took out the ballistic plates and replaced them with pieces of this mineral which we all call invisibelum” he said, Jack looked it over and then took out one of the new plates, it was made of a dark metal like rock that kinda reminded him of volcanic glass, then he placed his own hunting mask back on his face and looked at the rock, as he did the visor began to glitch and wouldn’t show him a reading at all, he could see everything around it in a large arc, but where the plate was there was a hole in his vision.

Jack handed the plate and armor back to Millar, “Clever” he said, Millar shrugged,

“Thanks, it’s saved our arses more than once, gives us an advantage when moving out in the open, but it doesn’t take them long to figure out what’s happening but by the time they do it’s already too late for em” he said, 

“So you’ve killed some of them then?” Jack asked, Millar nodded, 

“they are damn hard to take down fully, but yeah we’ve taken out a few, it doesn’t help that the only way we can get weapons and ammo out here is to scavenge what we can from the dead when they inevitably fall to the bad bloods or when they die during the free fall, which happens a hell of a lot” Millar said, Jack nodded solemnly,

“Most of the people I was dropped in with were killed by the fall” he said, suddenly a voice to their left snapped them all out of their contemplations, 

“Hey boss we’d better get a move on and head back to the camp or it’s gonna get dark and we’ll be stuck here for another night” Cortez said, Millar nodded at this, then he looked at Jack and Sela eleth, 

“Time you guys met the others, think they could do with a little joy as well” Millar said as he stood up, Jack nodded and both head Sela eleth got to their feet, “Oh before I forget, I think this belongs to you and now I know who taught you how to use it I feel a lot better about you having it” Millar said turning and picking up something from the floor and holding it out to Sela eleth, it was her AS50,

“Just be glad she’s got my temper and not her mother’s otherwise no fucker in a two-mile radius would be safe” Jack said with a grin at his daughter who punched his arm playfully, 

“Father!!” Sela eleth exclaimed with mock indignity,

“What? It’s true, you remember the time your mother hit her hand with my anvil hammer?” he asked and immediately Sela eleth’s face cracked into a huge smile before she started laughing, 

“The three of us ended up sitting on the roof of the house for the entire day watching her destroy half the forest with that sword you made her” Sela eleth said between giggles, 

“That and she threw my anvil hammer into fucking orbit, I wouldn’t have minded but that was my favorite hammer” Jack said in a mildly pissed sounding voice which only made his daughter laugh even harder, Millar looked at the giggling father and daughter and his mind was flooded with images of a pissed off female Yaujta going crazy and smashing up his house while Jack and his kids sat up on the roof and he found himself laughing along with them, then he looked at Jack as he dried his eyes, 

“I bet that certain time of the month is fun in your house” he said, Jack looked at him,

“Don’t even pauking go there” he said darkly.

 

It turned out that the camp wasn’t too far from the cave that they had been in, just a three mile walk, Millar felt really happy to have his old friend watching his back again just like the old days, finally the group reached a large cliff set into the side of a large mountain, Millar walked over to a huge set or rather nasty looking thorny vines that were climbing up the side of the rocks, with a large stick he inserted it between the vines and moved them to one side, this movement revealed a small hidden entrance behind them, “Watch you head’s it’s pretty narrow at first” he said, Jack nodded and so did Sela eleth, “Angel you take point it’ll be better if you head in first, I think our new friends might scare everyone if they walk in first” Millar said, Angel nodded and she stooped and headed into the cave followed by Cortez then Jack, then Sela eleth and finally Millar himself.

The cave’s twisted and turned and branched off in all different directions as Jack followed behind Cortez, “Really easy to get lost down here if you don’t know where you’re going” Millar said from behind them, 

“Yeah I can see that” Jack relied as he followed close behind Cortez, then the cave opened up and both Jack’s and Sela’s mouths dropped open, Jack had seen Angel’s memories but even those didn’t do this place the justice seeing it with your own eyes did it, they were in a huge cave that was although it was a few hundred feet down was open to the sky right in the middle, the whole place was like a huge dome with a hole right in the middle which sent a giant god ray of sunlight down to the middle of it, in the middle of that god ray seemed to be a rather large statue of a Yaujta woman holding a spear and what appeared to be a skull. 

Using some sort of polished mirrors, the residents had managed to send the light around the cave lighting most of it up with real sunlight, it was an amazing sight, as all around this shaft of light were little huts which were surrounded by trees and even an underground waterfall, “Holy shit this place is incredible” Jack said, Millar and the other smiled, 

“You ain’t seen anything yet, come on the others are going to want to meet you” Millar said and he led the way down to the village, as they walked into the what could be called the town square Jack saw people starting to emerge from their homes to stare at them, he could feel the fear coming from them as they saw both himself dressed in his armor and his daughter, “Friends don’t be afraid we have new friends to help us with our fight” Millar yelled at the top of his voice, then slowly but surely a crowd began to form around them as the curiosity overcame the fear and people came down to see their newest additions, Jack removed his mask so that people could see his face and this instantly caused quite the stir but fear was still keeping them at arm’s length from the newcomers, most sets of eyes were locked onto Sela eleth who was feeling rather self-conscious right now, Sela eleth became aware of someone to her right and she looked down and noticed a young black skinned girl looking up at her, so she crouched down so that she was at eye level with her, “Hello, my name is Amy” the young girl said, Sela eleth smiled she found it wonderful and odd that the bravest one out of the whole group was also the youngest, 

“Mine’s Sela eleth Mason but you can call me Sela” she said, the girl stepped closer to her and reached out to touch her head, 

“Your hair is funny but you have really pretty eyes” Amy said running her hand over Sela’s dreadlocks while looking into her eyes, 

“Why thank you” Sela eleth said smiling, then she became aware of someone standing behind Amy and she glanced up and instantly her breath caught in her throat, stood behind her was a tall ooman male of about fifteen, as her eyes took all of him in she instantly realized that he was the most beautiful thing that Sela eleth had ever seen in her life, he had long ice white hair down to his shoulders that shone like fresh snow in the reflected sunlight, his skin was fair and rosy, his face was almost delicate looking but his bright green eyes showed deep intelligence and boundless curiosity as he regarded her intently, but there was more there, there was a fire and what she perceived to be anger that shone through like a bright fire and instantly she felt her heart began to pound in her chest like an anvil hammer and she swallowed hard, 

“Errrr hi” she said nervously as she looked at him, without saying a word he placed a hand on Amy’s shoulder and pulled her back from Sela eleth, he never spoke a word as he guided the young girl away from Sela eleth and back towards a hut just past the crowd, 

“But I want to talk to the pretty alien girl Robert!!” Amy protested as he led her away, Sela eleth felt her heart ache as the boy guided the young girl inside and out of sight, she must have done something to offend him but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what, but suddenly she understood her brother a hell of a lot better.

A tall man in his sixties with the look of a grizzled veteran soldier approached Jack, he had a round face covered in scars and a massive bushy grey mustache “Odd choice of armor you got there” he said in a heavy Scottish accent, 

“Bit flash I know but it does the job and keeps the wankers off” Jack replied, the Scottish man guffawed with a laugh that sounded like someone trying to bump start a V8, then he clapped him on the shoulder and held out a hand like a shovel head to be shook, 

“Major Montgomery Duffy Royal Marines retired, but you can call me Monty” he said Jack took the massive hand and shook it, 

“Sargent Jack Mason twenty-two also retired” Jack said with a grin, Monty’s big bushy eyebrows shot up, 

“A Sass boy eh? Good to have one of you fellas along for the ride” he said, then he glanced over Jack’s shoulder at Sela eleth who was staring at the huts, 

“Is she with you?” he asked curiously, Jack nodded,

“She’s my daughter” he said, this caused Monty’s eyebrows to shoot up so high they nearly popped off the top of his head, 

“Well I get the feeling that there’s a hell of a story about how that came about” he said, Jack grinned, 

“You don’t know the half of it” Jack said, Monty laughed like a V8 again and clapped Jack on the shoulder, 

“Well any friend of young Millar there is a friend of ours so come on let’s grab us a drink and you can tell me all about it” Monty said and the he steered Jack towards a large hut, Sela eleth followed along behind her father but she kept looking towards the huts with a mixture of curiosity and despair written across her young face.


	36. Let the Trials Begin.

Chapter 36: Let the Trials Begin.

When finally, Ryan was able to gain control of his mandibles again he tried to think of something to say, but what do you say to a Goddess?   
Paya pulled her mandibles up into a slightly goofy grin that for some reason made Ryan grin as well, “It’s ok my child you don’t need to think of something clever to say I already know what you are thinking” she said in that honey sweet voice of hers, 

“Sorry I just don’t know what to say or how to act, I’ve never met a Goddess before” he said in a slightly embarrassed voice, Paya walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, 

“That’s one of the things I love about you my child, you’re always thinking about others feelings, that’s the human in you for sure” she said, Ryan glanced at the living Goddess to his left and felt himself blush although he didn’t know why, then something hit him and he turned his head to look Paya right in her bright silver eyes, 

“I guess that means that I am going to die then huh?” he said, Paya cocked her head at him curiously, 

“Why do you say that my child?” she asked,

“Well given you are Paya the Goddess of the hunt and you control who gets to join you on the eternal hunt in paradise and you are here talking to me, so I guess that means that my number’s up as my father would say, I mean I don’t mind if I have to die then I am ready, but I do wish I could have got to see Shena once more and say goodbye to her” he said with a sad tone entering his voice, a sudden high pitched laugh made his head snap to look at the Goddess again, she was smiling at him brightly with a shine in her eyes that hadn’t been there before,

“Oh my child that’s not why I am here” she said,

“Then why……?” he started but she held up a slender and delicate looking hand to silence him, 

“I am here to see one of the Dream Warriors who are about to start a cultural revolution among the Yaujta that has been a couple of thousand years in the making” she said.

This little revelation both stunned and shocked Ryan, “Cultural revolution?” Ryan said looking surprised, Paya nodded still smiling, 

“You don’t know how long I have searched and how hard I have looked for the perfect candidate, but then I found him, your human father Jack Mason” Paya said,

“My father?” Ryan asked confused, Paya nodded again,

“The first of his kind, a perfect human Dream Warrior, but the abilities where locked deep inside him, so I made sure that the bad bloods took him and put him on that planet those pauks like to use to hunt, thus setting in place a chain of events that resulted in him awakening and realizing his Dream Warrior abilities though I do sense he does need a bit further of a push to fully awaken but I will take care of that in due course” Paya said more to herself thoughtfully than to Ryan, then she turned to face him fully, 

“I don’t get it?” he asked sounding confused,

“Simple by putting him there on that planet I set in motion the chain of events that led to you and your sister being born, the first perfect human/Yaujta hybrids to exist, the firsts of your kind and one of you is a Dream Warrior, you are set for great things Ryan, things that will change the Yaujta as a people forever” Paya said.

This little revelation stunned Ryan, this whole thing had been orchestrated by a Goddess and now he held the fate of an entire species in his hands, “But why? Why change the Yaujta at all?” he asked looking at her,

“Simple, as a race my people have grown stagnant, they refuse to embrace new ideas and to evolve with the ever changing universe around them, they have become so obsessed with their superiority and genetic purity that it’s going to have an adverse effect in centuries to come, a darkness is coming and if something is not done to change the Yaujta now then in a few centuries the Yaujta will cease to exist and I cannot allow that to happen, the universe is going to need my people and their strength, but the Yaujta need humanity and then humanity will need the Yaujta, so you see they desperately need each other in order to survive but in order for that to happen the Yaujta are going to need to be forced to see the light and for that you and your family are the keys” Paya said in a rather solemn voice.

Ryan felt like the entire weight of the universe had just been dropped on his shoulders, the cryptic speech of the Goddess of the hunt had hit home with him, he’d just been told the fate of not one but two species rested on his and his family’s shoulders, he really wished his father was here right now, he’d know what to do, nothing ever seemed to faze him and that was strength he could use right now, Paya smiled at him broadly, “Don’t worry child you are stronger than you know and that part of your father shines through in you brightly, you have his empathy and his kindness to go with your mother’s strength and determination, you’ll do just fine young one” she said, 

“How…..?” Ryan began to ask till he remembered he was speaking with a Goddess who could see right into his mind, she smiled even broader at this, then Ryan’s determination fired up, he had been personally asked by the Goddess of the hunt to help save his people, both of them and he knew that he couldn’t let her down, “What must I do?” he asked, Paya nodded approvingly, 

“That’s the spirit, I knew I’d chosen wisely with you and it’s rather simple actually, go through the trials” Paya said, Ryan’s mandibles dropped open, 

“You want me to stand trial?” he asked incredulously, Paya nodded,

“Trust me all will be clear soon enough” she said, then with that she walked forwards and pulled Ryan’s head forwards and kissed him on the forehead, as she did it felt like a veil in his mind lifted “Fight well my child” she said and with that she disappeared into a cloud of silver colored smoke that filtered right through the bars of the cell, Ryan just stood there watching the smoke dissipate, 

“What the pauk have I just agreed to?” he wondered to himself aloud.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Shena Black Crest watched in fascination as Tik eleth piloted the ship they were currently tearing through the void of space in, Tik had told her of how her and Jack had valiantly liberated it from the bad bloods the first time they had fought them.   
Right now Tik eleth was using the ships sensors to follow the ion trail left by the Arbiter’s ships engines through the vast emptiness of space, if there was one thing that bad bloods never scrimped on it was sensors, they loved to have a massive advantage over their prey in that they could follow them anywhere. Shena was desperately trying to follow what the clan Matriarch was doing so that she could learn these advanced hunting techniques, right now she seemed to be using the ships sensors along with the computer to use the trail to predict a destination, she watched in awe as the Matriarchs fingers flew across the keyboard with insane speed and cold determination.

Suddenly Tik eleth growled a series of triumphant clicks, “Got them” she said pointing at the screen, Shena looked where she was pointing and saw a large mass in space highlighted in red, 

“What’s that?” she asked,

“That is the Shadow Claw clan ship” Tik said in a dark voice, 

“He’s taken Ryan back to the clan ship?!” Shena exclaimed, Tik nodded darkly, 

“I hope you’re up for a fight young one, because I don’t think they’re going to be very happy to see us” Tik said, Shena growled and balled her fists, 

“They abandoned me on a planet to die like I was vermin just because I dared to fall in love with someone they don’t like, then worse than that they take the male I love from me, I’ll kill every one of them with my bare hands if I have to” she growled in a rather menacing voice for someone so young, Tik clicked her approval and nodded her head,

“The Shadow Claw clan is made up of some of the best hunters and warriors in the galaxy so it might just come down to that, plus you may find yourself fighting against your own flesh and blood, are you ready for that?” Tik asked, Shena growled,

“They were once my family, but they proved themselves unworthy of my love and my loyalty with what they did to me, I was always looked down on because I’m small, they just laughed at my triumphs and were fast to hold up my failures as examples of why small people are inferior, but when they condemned me for daring to live my life the way I want and took the male I love from me for nothing more than falling in love with me and daring to exist, they crossed the line, they are already dead to me now” Shena said in a very cold voice, Tik clicked her mandibles before turning and placing a large hand on the young huntresses shoulder, 

“You will get your vengeance young one and we are going to get my son back, do not fear you will feel his arms around you again, also do not count him out just yet if I know my son he will be fighting his way back to you right this second” she said, Shena looked the Matriarch in the eye and she saw such a fire in those bright purple eyes that it lifted her spirits and filled her heart with determination, she smiled and nodded at Tik who also smiled at her, “Let’s get you ready for this fight” she said and with that she stood up and led the young female out of the cock pit and to the ship’s impressive armory, she and Jack had kept it well stocked with a variety of weapons and armor that both of them had made just in case something like this ever happened. Shena’s mandibles dropped open as she saw the huge verity of swords, spears, wrist blades and even plasma casters that filled the walls, “Hmmmm this one I think” Tik eleth said picking up some armor from the walls, it was a silver black and covered in runes and symbols that Shena didn’t recognize, Tik turned and handed it to her, as Shena took it she realized that Tik herself was wearing something very similar, she didn’t want to question the Matriarch so she took it and began to strip off her existing armor so she could replace it with this new much stronger looking set. 

As she put the pieces of armor on she was amazed at how light it was and how easy it was to move in it, after she was finished she looked at herself in a full length mirror that was next to the door, the silver black armor seemed to really match her black skin and it it really did make her look rather mean, “It fits you well and it really does suit you” Tik eleth said appearing behind her, 

“It’s beautiful” Shena said, Tik clicked her mandibles happily, 

“My beloved life mate made it from scratch with his bare hands as he did all of the weapons in this room, well except for the plasma casters, I made those” Tike eleth said proudly gesturing to the massive verity of weapons in the room, Shena looked at her in surprise,

“Jack Mason made this armor!?” Shena said in surprise, Tik eleth nodded,

“He did it after I said that our clan needed its own armor that our enemies would come to know and fear the sight of, he makes pretty much all of our weapons and armor, I tend to do the more complex things like plasma casters and pistols, but you are wearing armor hand crafted by a Dream Warrior that bears our clan symbol young one and I have no doubt in my mind that you will do it proud” Tike said placing a large hand on the pauldron of the young huntress, Shena looked at her in shock but also in awe, then Tik handed her something else, it was a hunting mask made in the same metal as the armor, on the forehead was a set of what looked like a crossed rifles, “Take this as your official welcome into our clan young one” Tik said, instantly Shena tried to refuse the prestigious gift, 

“But Matriarch I have not earned such a gift yet!” she said trying to hand back the mask, Tik growled, 

“My beloved has a saying, a Mason does not take back that which is freely given, you earned your place in our clan the moment you made that soul felt declaration of love for my son in such a proud voice young one, so as far as I am concerned you are already part of us” Tik eleth said, Shena was humbled by such a welcome,

“I will do it honor” she said and with that she placed the mask over her face and it activated bringing up various displays, Tik purred approvingly,

“It looks good on you young one, they very image of a proud Yaujta huntress” she said as Shena looked at herself in the mirror, “And just think what Ryan is going to think when he sees you charging to his rescue dressed like this” she said with a sly smile, Shena was suddenly very glad she was wearing the mask as she could feel herself blush as she thought of her Ryan, but then she smiled and nodded, she was going to get her male back or she was going to go down fighting and she would do it for the honor of the clan that had welcomed her with open arms when her blood clan had scorned her.

Pretty soon after Tik eleth had finished fussing over her Shena Black Crest was kitted out, she was wearing full plate armor that was surprisingly light for its size, it allowed her real ease of movement and she could see the craftsmanship was exceptional, it supported a molded breast plate that took her femininity into account, in fact the cups on the chest were a little bigger than Shena was in that department, but Tik had shown her a trick with a pair of rolled up rags which made it sit more comfortably. The chest piece terminated just about her midriff show it showed her stomach off, then there was another set of curved inter locked plates like lizard scales that seemed to flow down over her hips protecting the sides of her thighs and hips, next up were the large shin guards and boots which amazed her because Jack had taken into account Yaujta clawed feet when producing these boots, instead of rounded toe caps each of the boots had individual toes on them that were flexible and covered in plate metal, the result was some sort of metal foot that while it looked odd was incredibly comfortable and increased her movement and balance no end over regular boots, plus the metal claws increased her grip no end.

On her hips were mounted a pair of light weight swords for close encounters, on her back was the Sword of Perseus the hilt protruding above her head, she still felt that there was something very strange about this weapon as it seemed to buzz every time she held it, it was almost like it held a secret that she was yet to discover.  
The two large shoulder pauldrons she was wearing now supported twin plasma casters of a design she’d never seen before, both the cannons were shaped in the form of kiande amedha queen heads with their jaws forming the barrels, Tik had told her that Jack had made the hulls for these to celebrate their victory over a kiande amedha queen back when they’d first met after she had moaned that she wasn’t able to claim it’s head as a trophy, it took Shena a few moments to realize that these were Tik eleth’s personal plasma casters. 

Shena was admiring herself in the mirror in the armory, Tik was right in the fact that she looked like the very model of a proud Yaujta huntress, now all she had to do was prove herself to her new adoptive clan, she found herself hoping that Ryan was ok and as the shadow of the thought that they may have caused some form of harm to him slithered into her mind a shiver of cold slithered down her spine and her anger flared up, she vowed silently that if any harm had come to her beautiful male she would extract a price in blood from every pauking one of them, suddenly a large hand came down on her shoulder pauldron and she jumped, looking up she saw Tik looking down at her and she was smiling darkly, “Don’t worry we’re going to get him back unharmed, or we’re going to tear that ship apart piece by pauking piece” she said, it shocked Shena that Tik had known what she was thinking, 

“You’re not a Dream Warrior too are you?” she asked, Tik laughed loudly, 

“No just very good at reading body language and you have the stance of a hot blooded female who is ready to tear someone apart because they’ve taken something from her and I know what that something is, or should I say who” she said smiling, Shena sighed thankfully, two Dream warriors that could get into her head was quite enough, “Ok let’s get ready we’re on approach and I have no doubt in my mind that we’re gonna to have one hell of a fight on our hands” Tik said, Shena nodded and followed the Matriarch to the bridge of the ship to be greeted by the truly awesome sight of her old clan ship, she’d almost forgotten just how vast it was, her resolve almost wavered at the sight of it, fighting through this thing was going to be a monumental task, but then an image of her beloved Ryan flashed into her mind and she clicked her mandibles angrily, she was going to get him back or she was going to die trying, she would not waver, Tik looked at her young companion and instantly felt the determination coming of her in waves, she nodded her head approvingly, this girl was truly worthy of her son’s heart as she could clearly see that she was willing to give her all to save him or to die trying.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The chains clanked loudly on the metal floor as Ryan walked, the two unfamiliar Arbiters had come to get him to take him to the trial chambers, they’d been really careful of his hands while securing his wrists, they’d obviously heard the stories of what a Dream Warrior could do if they touched you, in fact they’d placed some sort of sacks over his hands under the heavy metal cuffs to stop him making contact with anyone as he was led along the halls.

Both of the Arbiters were rather surprised by the young boy’s demeanor as he was led along, they’d both expected him to be meek or down trodden or been scared of the fate that awaited him, but he was none of those things, he was walking proudly with his head held high with a very proud demeanor, there even seemed to be a raging fire in his bright eyes as he was led, it actually unnerved both of them as this was something that they’d never seen before, never in all their years of being Arbiters had they seen a prisoner cut such a proud figure, it was almost like he was looking forward to it and this worried them, what did this boy know that they didn’t?

The chambers that Ryan was led into was massive, it was a large circular room with twelve seats partially hidden behind some sort of dark wooden bench like desk that ran the entire circumference of the room, directly in front of him was one seat that was far larger than any of the other twelve, it was more like a throne than a seat.  
Each of the dark metal seats had a crest emblazoned at the head of it obviously indicating a family crest, next to it was the mark of the Shadow Claw clan, as Ryan’s eyes scanned the room he noticed that high above them was a form of public gallery that allowed people to witness the trials and by the size of it there was going to be quite a fair sized crowd.

The Arbiters secured Ryan’s chains to an anchor point right in the middle of a large circle that was dead center of the room, as they did people began to filter into the room from a verity of doors hidden all around it, twelve Yaujta both male and females took up the seats that made up the circle around him, as Ryan glanced at each of them he noticed they were all dressed in ceremonial armor of various different verity’s, from the Arbiters memories Ryan knew that these were the family heads that made up a council of judges and that the largest seat at the top was for the clan leader, who was at this very second entering the chambers.

The clan leader was a rather large male of about seven-foot-tall and very heavily built, his black armor was decorated with a massive verity of small trophies that hung all over him, most of them appeared to be skulls of different shapes and sizes, as he entered all the others began to bang their hands on the bench in a sort of rhythm till he raised a huge metal gloved hand to silence them, now every set of eyes in the room switched from the clan leader to Ryan, suddenly Ryan noticed another figure standing near to the clan leader who hadn’t been there before, it was the ooman female that he’d seen on the planet, the one he’d chased through forest, then as he looked at her in utter surprise grey smoke trails seemed to come from nowhere and around the room various other figures started to appear, males, female, ooman, Yaujta, there were hundreds of them all over the room, Ryan looked at them and he noticed that their attention was equally fixed on him and that’s when he noticed Paya standing right in the middle of them all, she was smiling broadly at him and in an instant he felt his heart soar and his mind steel itself, she’d obviously brought them here to witness this and he wasn’t going to disappoint her.

“You are Ryan of the clan Mason correct?” the clean leader boomed in a voice that sounded like someone striking a metal panel with an anvil hammer, Ryan took a deep breath, 

“I am” he replied in his proudest voice,

“You stand accused of heresy and of corrupting one of our clan members with your deviancy” the clan leader boomed, Ryan gave him a cold hard stare which seemed to surprise the clan leader somewhat, he obviously wasn’t used to having the accused trying to stare him down, “How plead you?” the Clan leader asked, Ryan took a deep breath,

“Not guilty” he said as loudly as he could, instantly a huge hubbub erupted in the room in both the public gallery and from the bench, one of the council members jumped to his feet banging his huge hands down on the bench, 

“You defiled my beloved daughter Shena!!” he yelled, Ryan turned look at him, 

“Yeah so beloved that you’d rather let her rot on a planet where she could be killed or raped by bad bloods than let her be happy and live her own life” he said, Shena’s father roared at the insult and jumped over the bench landing with a boom on the metal floor, as he headed towards the chained boy he was intercepted by the two Arbiters, 

“Councilman if you raise your hand to a defenseless prisoner you will be struck down in dishonor” one of them said, Shena’s father growled and eyed Ryan angrily who stared back at him equally as angrily, 

“ORDER!!” the Clan leader boomed so loudly that it echoed multiple times off every surface, the room fell silent and Shena’s father returned rather meekly to his seat.

The clan leader returned his sight to Ryan but before he could say anything Ryan got there first, he’d had an idea and it was something he’d gotten from one of the stories that his Matriarch had told him when he was young, “Honorable clan leader if I must be put on trial although I have committed no crime then I demand that I be given the most ancient of Yaujta rights” he said, the Clan leader eyed him with both caution and curiosity, 

“But you are not Yaujta are you boy?” he said with a rather sly smile on his mandibles, Ryan gritted his teeth behind his mandibles at the insult but he kept his cool, 

“I am half Yaujta and is this not a Yaujta court? Do you not uphold sacred Yaujta law here? Or was I mistaken?” he said looking the clan leader in the eye, the clan leaders blood red eyes shone with curiosity at this boy’s brazen attitude, but he found this rather entertaining, this young half breed had more fire in his soul than most of the adult warriors on this ship, it was almost a pity that he was going to have to sentence him to death, but he decided to humor this young half breed Dream Warrior, 

“Very well, what right is it that you demand?” he asked, Ryan smiled at him darkly, 

“I demand the most honored and ancient Yaujta tradition one that cannot be ignored” he said,   
“Oh and what would that be?” the clan leader asked rather cautiously this time, 

“I demand a trial by combat” Ryan said.


	37. Friends With Benefits.

The large hut wasn’t just a living space, Jack instantly saw that it served as a village town hall or meeting place, in the middle was a rather large round wooden table with chairs all around it, the place as a whole had a kind of hunter’s cabin crossed with rainforest jungle hut feel to it, on one hand you had things like the table made from what looked like oak and then you had what appeared to be a cabinet of some kind made from what looked like bamboo.

“Take a seat laddie” Monty said gesturing to the table, 

“Thanks” Jack said and pulled out a chair next to him for his daughter who was busy taking off her rifle, she gave him a silent nod and placed her rifle by her side and her mask on the table after unclipping it from the rear of her belt, Jack had to remove a few weapons himself before he was able to comfortably sit down, but one his rifle and swords were removed he was able to sit down on the hard wood chair, Monty, Millar and his group and three people that Jack hadn’t been introduced to yet joined them and all sat down at the table.

“So who goes first for the story swap?” Jack asked, Monty grinned with an amused look on his face, 

“I will but before I do just some introductions” he said, then with his large shovel like hand he gestured to the three newcomers, first up was a young woman with olive skin, jet black curly hair and dark fierce eyes, “This is Isabelle an IDF sniper, think she’s been here longer than any of us except for myself” Monty said, the young woman simply nodded at Jack without saying a word, “She doesn’t talk much since her lover Royce was killed by those fuckers three seasons back” Monty said, Isabelle huffed and shot Monty a dark look,

“I speak when I feel something needs to be said” she said in her accented English, Monty simply smiled back at her, 

“Or when she’s angry apparently” he said which caused the young woman to huff in annoyance again, this caused the others at the table to smile slightly.

Monty moved his large hand onto the next person at the table, this one was a young Japanese man in his mid-twenties, “This is Corporal Yoshi Namboku, he’s a rather gifted engineer, he is or was a member of the JDF, he’s the reason we all live so comfortably down here, he’s the one responsible for the huts, the running water, the electricity and so much more” Monty said, the young man bowed slightly to Jack and Sela, 

“I am not much of a fighter, I prefer to build” he said rather humbly, Jack Grinned at him, 

“This place is beautiful you’ve done an amazing thing here, building this place right under the bad bloods noses is remarkable” Sela eleth said, Yoshi looked at the young girl and smiled while blushing profusely, 

“Thank you, but it was nothing really, just some bamboo, some wood and hard work, everyone pitched in it not like I could have done this all on my own” he said rather embarrassedly, 

“Yeah but without your plans we’d still be sat on the dirt with barely any kinda roof over our heads” Monty said, this caused Yoshi to blush even harder and Monty to smile even broader.

Now it was the turn of the last new face at the table, unlike the other two this person didn’t look military, she was a young black woman in her mid-thirties with her hair tied into a sort of scruffy pony tail and small round glasses that kept sliding down her small nose causing her to push them up every few seconds, her eyes screamed both intelligence and curiosity at Jack but it wasn’t Jack she was looking at, it was Sela eleth, in fact she hadn’t taken her eyes off her since they’d entered the hut.

“Last but by no means least my I introduce Professor Grace Osbourne of NASA” Monty said, the woman smiled broadly and before anyone could say anything she hand lunged across the table and seized Sela eleth’s hand and was shaking it wildly, Sela eleth looked pretty startled by the young ooman’s gesture and glanced at her father who simply smiled and shrugged, 

“It’s so good to meet you both” Grace said in a rather high pitched voice that was almost a squeak, Jack regarded the young woman curiously, it was only then that Grace seemed to notice Sela eleth’s obvious discomfort at having her hand shaken quite so vigorously and she released the young girl’s hand, “Oh I am so so sorry, I get a little carried away sometimes, you see I am a Professor of Biology and Exobiology so getting to see one of your kind up close is like a dream come true for me, the only members of your race that I have had chance to see were either shooting at us, or dead after one the military guys defending us killed one, so being able to see you up close like this is incredible, being able to sit down at the same table and have a conversation, it’s like a dream come true for me, oh I have sooo many questions that I am aching to ask you, like where do you come from?, what’s your home planet like?, how different are we to you biologically?, but I must say and forgive me if this sounds rude, but you do look rather different from the others of your kind that I have seen” Grace said talking so fast that her voice reminded Jack of a minigun on windup.

Sela eleth didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted by the curious woman, but she guessed that she didn’t mean no harm and curiosity wasn’t a bad thing, the woman was just lucky it was her she was addressing and not her Matriarch, if she’d had told her Matriarch that she looked different from others of her kind well after she’d have pulled her freshly removed arm out of her own arse hole then her Matriarch would have simply stated that now she looked different from other oomans too.

Sela eleth decided to humor the curious woman who seemed like she was about to start bouncing up and down in her chair any second and fire even more questions at her, “I look different because I am only half Yaujta” Sela said in a calm voice, Grace’s eyebrows flew up, 

“A Hybrid!!?” she almost yelled, again she flew around the table, this time she started examining Sela in close detail while the entire time talking to herself sounding like she was taking mental notes, looking at her skin “Smooth texture with camouflage patterning interesting” she said, her hair “Fine hair braided into what appears to be dreadlocks similar to the dreadlocks seen on others but more like human hair” she said, her hands “Smaller than other members, rather delicate and with obvious fine dexterity and motor skills” she said, it was only when she went to touch her mandibles that Sela eleth decided that enough was enough, she growled which caused Grace to freeze as she looked into the shining eyes of the young huntress,

“I don’t think my daughter appreciates being prodded like a lab rat Professor” Jack said calmly, this caused Grace’s mouth to fall open, 

“Y-Y-Y-Your daughter!!?” she exclaimed now looking at Jack as if this was the first time she’d seen him in the room, he nodded,

“That’s right my daughter, Sela eleth Mason, proud full blooded huntress of the clan Mason” Jack said, this caused Sela’s head to snap towards her father and found him smiling past Grace and directly at her, he had noticed the marking on her forehead after all, hearing her father refer to her as a full blooded huntress in such a proud voice made her heart swell with pride.

Grace flew to Jack’s side now, “You mean to tell me that you were actually able to mate with one of their kind and successfully produce an offspring!!?” Grace exclaimed, she was almost dancing on the spot skipping from one foot to the other like she really needed the toilet, Jack regarded the young scientist with a raised eyebrow, 

“I didn’t just mate with anybody professor, I simply made love with the woman I love more than life itself and was blessed” Jack said, Grace cocked her head to one side as if the notion that simply mating to swap genetic material and the idea that making love to someone because you ache to bring them so much pleasure in this life that your heart bursts was somehow the same, 

“And the union produced an offspring?” She said curiously,

“Two offspring actually, twins, a girl and a boy, my beautiful daughter Sela eleth who you see here and I also have a son Ryan, who my life mate Tik eleth is currently on the way to tear an Arbiter’s head off and shove it up his own arse to retrieve” Jack said in a matter of fact voice,

“Both human/Yaujta hybrids?” she asked, Jack nodded, this time Grace did actually jump up and down on the spot, “So human hybridization is actually possible with other species, oh Mr Mason you don’t know this but you have just made history, you have to be the first not only to engage in interspecies mating but for it to produce offspring!!” she said bouncing up and down, then she proceeded to bombard Jack with questions regarding the why’s and how’s of it all, never actually giving him time to answer a single one before she fired the next at him, the others at the table looked amused at this little spectacle but Jack soon tired of it, 

“Professor rather than answer all these questions why don’t I just show you?” he said, that put a few people at the table on instant alert, Grace cocked her head curiously at him, 

“Show me? Show me how?” she asked, Jack went to reach for her, 

“NO!! Don’t!!” Angel yelled jumping up from her seat, Jack glanced at her and saw all the anxious faces of Millar’s team staring back at him, 

“Spoilsports” he said retracting his hand and sitting back down, 

“Huh?” Grace asked confused by this, Angel breathed a sigh of relief, 

“Professor you have no idea of the bullet you just dodged” she said, 

“What bullet? I don’t understand?” Grace said looking at all their anxious and now relived faces, 

“Jack is something the Yaujta call a Dream Warrior, it means he has these abilities, crazy and insane abilities that can really fuck with your head” Angel said, now the professor looked really curious, 

“Take a seat professor this is going to take a while” Jack said gesturing to the table, wordlessly she moved back to her seat and sat down, “Right then from the top shall we?” Jack said and with that he began to recount his own story from the very beginning.

Jack told the majority with Sela eleth interjecting certain bits from her perspective and then fully taking over when it came to the Jack and Tik heading off to find them and telling what had happened to her and her brother, Jack listened intently at this point as this was the first time he’d heard her story, he’d gotten somethings from his memory transference with Ryan but when he’d connected with his son he still hadn’t found his sister, as he listened to her side of the story he found himself silently celebrating his daughter’s triumphs and swearing vengeance on those that had dared to try to hurt her which caused him to smile subconsciously as he caught himself doing it.

After they were done Jack glanced around at the group seated before them, there were a few stunned faces in her now, while Millar and his team had heard Jack’s tale or at least part of it as he’d gone into far more detail this time, they hadn’t heard Sela eleth’s and it stunned them and also worried them after she mentioned fighting the bugs.  
Monty was the first to speak managing to get his words out quick as he could see Grace charging up to his far left, “Well that really is quite an adventure you’ve had for yourselves there” he said rubbing his mustache thoughtfully, 

“Well now that we’ve told you ours why don’t you tell us yours?” Jack said, Monty glanced around at his group and each of them nodded, 

“Very well laddie as ye wish, better strap yourself in though as it quite a doozy in itself, not as glamourous as meeting and marrying an exotic alien woman but starting a village on an alien world while being hunted down is no mean feat I can tell you” he said, Jack and Sela eleth both grinned at him, so taking a deep breath Monty began to recount the story.

Well as it turned out most of them had near enough identical stories to Jack, well except for the falling in love with an alien huntress part anyway, they had all been snatched from Earth and air dropped in as part of a group of ten, what shocked and saddened Jack was that each of them was the sole survivor of each of their separate groups, for each of them there was nine others who didn’t make it and while Jack’s group was pretty much all military personnel quite a few of the other groups weren’t, the Professor’s group for example had been pretty much entirely made up of civilians, all scientists except for one soldier, Grace was the only one to survive and by her own words, just because she was incredibly good at hiding.  
As he had already seen some of the other groups had contained children a fact that boiled Jack’s blood, he knew that Yaujta society revolved around hunting and sport killing but hunting children and those who were defenseless was nothing short of vile and he knew that no self-respecting Yaujta would ever do such a thing, hunting an armed soldier is one thing but hunting a defenseless child was quite another, even Sela eleth was moved to tears as she heard some of the tales from the group, each of them had taken it in turns to add bit and pieces to the whole story each terminating in how they were found by the others and led here to the place that Monty had found and Yoshi had built, but by far the saddest was that which Cortez told. He told an account of how the bad bloods had deliberately dropped ten unarmed children in by parachute in order to lure out the other survivors so they could be picked off as they tried to reach the defenseless kids.

“And it worked too, the group went into such a rage that a large chunk of our number went out to scour the jungle for these kids, we lost twenty people that day and all we saved were three” Cortez said in a sad voice, Jack looked at him sadly and as he did grey smoke appeared around him and straight away Jack noticed seven young children standing there looking sadly at Cortez , a young girl of about nine walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, he smiled at the spirits of the kids that Cortez had failed to save, 

“The point is that you tried, sacrificing yourself for an innocent life is a noble and honorable death” Jack said softly, Cortez looked at him and so did the spirits who seemed genuinely shocked that he could see them, the young girl who had placed her hand on Cortez’s shoulder walked towards Jack and stopped in front of him, Sela eleth noticed her father’s unusual look and also noticed that he seemed to be watching something that she couldn’t see, 

“Father?” she said quietly, 

“They are here” he said softly as he reached out his hand to touch the hand that the little girl offered him, 

“Who’s here?” Grace asked looking around in confusion,

“The children” Jack said and his hand made contact with the girl’s, instantly his eyes flashed from brilliant ice blue to black and his mind was flooded with the images of her life, her name was Lilly and she was nine, she’d been on holidays with her grandparents when she was taken, Jack saw the fear, the pain she had suffered and te darkest of despair when she knew that she was going to die, now she just wanted someone to know her story and to remember her, she didn’t blame Cortez for not being able to rescue her, she was just glad that he’d managed to save at least some of them.

As soon as his hand touched the young girl spirit’s a coil of grey smoke had emanated from his finger tips and had coiled its way around his arm, Jack didn’t see this as he was currently inside the girl’s mind, but the others could all see it and they all watched in fascinated shock at this, suddenly Jack turned to look at Cortez whose mouth dropped open at the man’s eyes, “Cortez come here, she wants you to see this too” he said, Cortez looked scared as hell as he looked at the man with grey smoke coiled up his arm and black eyes where there had once been blue, It’s ok you don’t have to be afraid” Jack said, slowly Cortez moved around the table to where Jack was, “Hold out your hand” Jack instructed, Cortez did so and instantly Jack took it with his other hand and the smoke coiled out from Jack’s hand around Cortez’s arm, “See her and remember her” Jack said in a soft voice and to his utter shock a young girl appeared in front of him holding hands with Jack and now also with him, he looked at her in utter amazement and then his mind was flooded with her memories and the tears started.

The entire group watched this display in stunned silence, even Sela eleth who knew of her father’s abilities watched in amazement, she’d seen his memory transference before but she’d never seen him talk to spirits before even though her Matriarch had told her about it, but as she watched now Cortez’s eyes changed color to match her father’s and the smoke that had been coiled around his arm was now also coiled around Cortez’s and tears were streaming down his face, “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry that we couldn’t save you” Cortez said in a choked voice, then a smile broke out of his face, “Thank you, oh god thank you, you have no idea what that means to me” he said with tears streaming down his cheeks, then just as suddenly as it had begun it was over and the smoke receded from both of them.

Jack’s and Cortez’s eyes returned to normal and the bond was broken as the girl and the other spirits with a last wave of good bye to their new Dream Warrior friend and the friend that had tried to save them, they all vanished in a wisp of smoke.

Cortez looked at Jack who now looked pretty drained, “How? How is that possible?” he asked, Jack shook his head, 

“No clue my friend, all that I know is that it is and now you do to” he said, 

“That was incredible, all her memories, all of her feelings, it was like I lived her life inside her head as she was living it” Cortez said looking at his hands, Jack smiled,

“It’s quite something isn’t it?” Angel’s voice said from behind him, he turned and looked at her, 

“It was incredible, I met Lilly, she was one of the kids that those fuckers dropped in to get us to come out, she showed me her life, or Jack showed me her life I don’t know which, but the main thing is she didn’t blame us for her death, she’s happy where she is now and there’s no pain, she told me not to blame or hurt myself for her death anymore” Cortez said, 

“Hurt yourself?” Monty asked curiously, Cortez looked both guilty and sad but then Jack placed a hand on his shoulder, 

“Show them” he said softly, Cortez nodded and lifted up his shirt, all of them at the table gasped in shock, over his torso Cortez had a patch work of scars about an inch big obviously done with a razor or small blade, 

“It was my way of paying penance for them dying, I thought that if I put myself through a small amount of their pain, then maybe they’d forgive me for not rescuing them” Cortez said sadly, Angel was off her seat and on her feet in a second, she threw her arms around Cortez and pulled him into a hug, 

“But they never blamed me, t-t-t-they thanked me for trying” he said as his voice broke into tears, the whole group watched as Angel gripped the big man and held him as he wept into her shoulder, then after he was done and Angel released him Cortez turned to Jack and grabbed both of his hands in his, “Thank you, thank you so so much for showing me that” he said, Jack gripped Cortez’s hands tightly in his, 

“Your welcome my friend, but it wasn’t me, it was Lilly who wanted you to see” he said, 

“But without you and these crazy arse gifts of yours none of that would have been possible” Cortez said, Jack smiled softly, 

“Then you are very welcome my friend, I hope it gave you peace” he said.

Finally Cortez returned to his seat, the man looked about ten years younger, it was like someone had pulled the weight of the world of his shoulders, the group watched him silently for a moment before Grace broke it, “What did we just witness?” she asked, before Jack could answer Sela eleth piped up,  
“The way my Matriarch described it to me is that Dream Warriors are people capable of incredible things, they have incredible power within them, a foot in both the living world and the spirit world at the same time, it grants them gifts like being able to see the spirits of the dead as if they were living beings as they walk among us, it also allows them to reach into another’s mind and see them in their entirety, their hopes, dreams, loves, fears, all as if they were theirs themselves, it also allows them to show people things, to pass along knowledge or memories as if the recipient themselves had lived that very moment” Sela said, Angel nodded from their left, 

“And I can tell you it’s one hell of a ride, Jack did that to me back in the cave when we first met him, he made me live his entire life in a split second, I felt every love hope and fear he’s ever had in its rawest form, from helping his sister as a child, to the love that drove him to nearly kill himself to save his life mate when he was stuck on this planet, even holding his daughter and his son in his arms for the first time, it was incredible, feeling someone else’s life like that, all I can say is wow, it nearly blew my mind” she said, Sela eleth nodded, 

“Dream Warrior memory transference is quite something, I remember when I ran away once when I was younger, I blamed my father for everything, thought that he loved my brother more than me, thought that he was his favorite and that I’d never be good enough, he found me and when he did I screamed and I screamed at him, I called him every vile name that I knew, he never said a word, he simply walked over and placed his hand on my cheek and I saw it and I felt it, I saw the very first time he held me in his arms, I watched myself sucking my thumb as I slept through his eyes, I saw my first birthday and I felt the happiness and the pride he felt when he looked at me, not to mention the love, but the one that broke me was the fear I felt from him when he discovered that I’d run away, the panic in his heart and the sheer force and determination to find me, he was literally prepared to tear our home world apart with his bare hands just to have me in his arms safe and sound, I’ve never cried so hard in my life” she said, Angel smiled and laughed softly, 

“I know this sounds weird, but I remember that as if it was my own memory, I can see it clear as day in my head, you had a black top on with leather pads all over it that you mother made for you and a pair of shorts and you cried so had into your father’s stomach that you soaked his only tee shirt” Angel said, Sela eleth smiled at her and nodded, then she looked back at Grace who was watching this entire exchange with gnawing curiosity, 

“It also grant’s them a few other gifts too” she said, 

“Like what?” Grace asked eagerly, 

“Like increased strength, he’s about two maybe three times stronger than a normal ooman, then there’s the speed, if you don’t see him move you never will my Matriarch always said, my father can cross a room in the blink of an eye” Sela eleth said proudly, Grace cocked her head and turned to look at Jack who seemed to shimmer for a second before disappearing, she looked confused before she felt something behind her, she turned and saw Jack smiling down at her from only an inch away, 

“Boo” he said which actually caused her to jump back, then she glanced back at the empty seat and then back at Jack, only Jack was nowhere to be seen, she looked back at Sela eleth and saw her father sat there with his arms crossed looking the picture of innocence, 

“But, I, I mean he, what?” she said glancing around herself in utter confusion, Sela eleth giggled sweetly, 

“Don’t worry you’re not seeing things, he does that to our Matriarch all the time, he’s forever just appearing next to her kissing her and disappearing again, well that or pinching and smacking her bum, drives her crazy, she chased him round the house once with a spatula because he smacked her bum while she was trying to sew Ryan’s armor and she stuck her finger with the needle” she said through her giggle, Jack grinned, 

“I’m damn glad that was the only thing she had near her at the time, plenty of sharp shit in my house” he said grinning like a naughty schoolboy, this caused a few of the group to burst out laughing,

“Fair play laddie, their kind seem angry at the best of times, must be a brave man to want to marry one” Monty said grinning under his mustache, Jack smiled at him, 

“She’s my soul mate and I wouldn’t have her any other way” he said, before Grace could continue to bombard Jack or Sela with questions Monty decided to move things along, 

“Well then laddie, now that you know our story are ye willing to help us?” he asked, Jack smiled, 

“Monty we were both willing to help you the moment we walked in the door, but now we know what you guys have been through, it just makes us more determined to get you guys out of here” Jack said with Sela nodding next him, Monty sighed a massive sigh of relief, 

“Well laddie you don’t know how glad I am to hear that, we can definitely use all the help we can get around her, a human Dream Warrior thingy who moves like lightning and his gun touting sniper daughter will be a definite boost to morale” he said, Jack grinned, 

“Ain’t going to be easy though Monty, these bad bloods are no push overs, we’re going to need a plan, not only to bring out the fighters, but to bring out their leader as well, she’s the one we need to kill, with her dead the others will either descend into a power struggle or scatter, at the very least it will give us time to get the hell off this rock, but ideally we need to put an end to this once and for all, otherwise it’s just going to keep happening once they’re organize, we need to teach them not to fuck with Earth” Jack said, 

“Or kill them all, whichever comes first” Angel said, they all nodded at this, 

“Well then I think we have our answer, it’s going to take a little time to come up with something this grand laddie, but for the mean time you will be our welcome guests, I’m sure you and your wee daughter there could use some rest, we have some spare huts dotted around that you can use as Yoshi here just seems to like to build more and more” Monty said, 

“I am not wee! wait what’s wee mean?” Sela eleth said he mandibles flaring a bit, Jack laughed at her behind his hand, 

“What?” she said looking right at him, 

“Nothing, you just don’t know how much you remind me of your mum sometimes” he said, she huffed not knowing if that was an insult or not, still smiling Jack turned back to Monty who was also smiling in amusement at the teenage girl’s outburst, 

“Thanks Monty I could definitely use the rest” he said, the big Scotsman grinned and then they all stood up from the table, 

“Miller will sort you both out, I’ll see you tomorrow and we can get to planning” he said, Jack nodded and both he and Sela eleth followed Millar out of the door and into the village, Sela was still grumbling under her breath about being wee.

As Millar led them across the village Sela eleth looked at the place in wonder, it amazed her that oomans had managed to survive this nightmarish place and not only that but to make themselves a community like this, as her eyes settle on the massive statue in the middle of the village that the god ray of sunlight hit she realized that it was Paya the goddess of the hunt, as he eyes followed it down she was surprised to see Amy the young black skinned ooman girl that she’d met when she first got her, she appeared to be making something out of flowers that looked kind of like a circle, then as she watched she turned and placed it on the head of the person sitting next to her, thats when she saw Robert and her heart started to thump again, it was also at his time that her father and her reached the hut and Millar ushered them inside.


	38. Guilty Until Proven Innocent.

Chapter 38: Guilty Until Proven Innocent.

The moment the words left Ryan’s mouth the entire chamber erupted into chaos, but the mood in the room was completely conflicted, some of them were calling for it not to be allowed as he was a Dream Warrior and had an unfair advantage, others were calling for it to happen as it was a sacred tradition.

The clan leader banged his massive hand on the bench in front of him so loud the noise echoed around the room, “SILENCE!!!” he roared so loud that everyone in the room instantly fell silent and turned to face him, the clan leader rose to his feet and regarded Ryan with a suspicious eye, “Do you know what you’re asking for boy?” he asked looking right at Ryan’s eyes, Ryan nodded, 

“I do, I am asking for you to uphold one of the most honored and sacred Yaujta traditions, if by executing me for merely existing and for daring to fall in love with a woman who loves me back with equal conviction you claim to be upholding sacred Yaujta ways then how can you if you deny me this most sacred of Yaujta rights?” he said loudly, there was an unsure murmur around the room, Ryan decided to push his advantage here, “Think about it, what more sacred is there among Yaujta tradition than to let Paya decide a person’s innocence or guilt?” Ryan said, one of the front row Yaujta jumped to her feet and slammed her hands on the bench, 

“You dare take our sacred goddess’s name in vain?” she said loudly, Ryan turned to look at her, 

“Quite the opposite actually, right now I am prepared to put my life in her hands, if my existence and way of life is true and right in her eyes then she will undoubtedly lead me to victory, if not then I will fall and you will know that you were right all along” he said calmly, the female clicked her mandibles a few times as she debated this in her own head, then she sat back down without saying another word, the clan leader clicked his mandibles curiously as he regarded the young hybrid, he couldn’t decide if the young boy was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, Ryan looked around the room at the gathered people and spirits, there was a mixture of emotions circling around the room, some were downright angry at him for even daring to demand such rights, there were others that were curious of the young hybrid and some even let admiration show on their faces, strangely it seemed mainly the females in the room that seemed to be showing the admiration.

The clan leader looked around the room at the faces of those gathered and he sighed, he knew that the boy was right, he could not execute him in the name of upholding Yaujta tradition if he did not allow this boy’s request, it was a sacred right under Yaujta law and tradition, “Very well Ryan of the clan Mason you will have your trial by combat, do you know the rules?” he said, quite a few sets of mandibles around the room dropped open at this, Ryan shook his head, 

“Not fully no, I know that it is split into four parts, but that’s it” he said, the clan leader nodded, 

“That’s right, you will have four different opponents, the first is a criminal like yourself, this is to symbolize your guilt, the second will be a beast from our hunting stores, this will symbolize your usefulness as a hunter, the third will be a beast of immense strength to prove the strength of your convictions, now the forth is optional, if after the other three trials are complete your accuser wishes to face you directly in one on one combat that will be granted to them” the clan leader, Ryan now turned to look at Shena’s father who was sat there smugly with his arms crossed over his chest, he got the feeling that if he made it that far he was going all the way here, “If you succeed in defeating all opponents in your way, you will be granted your innocence and set free, do you understand these terms and accept them?” the clan leader asked looking at Ryan, the young boy turned to face him again and much to his surprise saw even more fire in his eyes than before he’d started speaking, 

“I do” Ryan said calmly, the clan leader clicked his mandibles thoughtfully, then he nodded, he had to admit he was impressed by this youngster, never before had anyone brought before him demanded this right, most begged for their lives or stood there in silent defeat, but this young hybrid seemed to have determination surrounding him like a fire so bright that it almost appeared to make him shine, he’d also noticed the effect his words and defiance had one the crowd, where most of them had just come to see his execution now there was a mixture of emotions floating around the room, some were still wishing death on him, but then he could see others had taken the young boys words on board and seemed to either empathize with him or even silently support him, even he had to admit this youngsters bravery and charisma was infectious, well the trials would determine his innocence, 

“Very well then, Ryan of the clan Mason you shall face your trial by combat, I hope you are ready as there will be no rest from this point, you will be led from here to the arena where you will face your first trial, may Paya have mercy on you young one” he said, with that he gestured to the Arbiters and they moved forwards took his chains and led him from the chambers, immediately there was a stampede from the court chambers, not a single person in the room was going to miss this for anything, this was the chance of a life time, a chance to see a hybrid Dream Warrior fight for his life and his freedom, even the clan leader had to resist the urge to run to the arena.

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The dock master checked his list as he looked at the large corvette that had just docked, this was strange as he hadn’t been expecting any arrivals today, but then the clearance codes had matched up properly and he supposed hunters were rather unpredictable at the best of times, he was constantly having to deal with random whims of the various hunting parties aboard the clan ship, he ran the ship’s ID codes through his lists but he couldn’t see them anywhere, “Pauking piece of c’jit” he said banging the console with his hand as it gave him yet another set of error codes, he looked up at the ship from his office window below the loading gantry to the ship, it was sure a fine looking vessel obviously belonging to someone of high standing, it was fast sleek and looked like it was armed to the mandibles, it was at that point one of the dock workers shot passed his window screaming as he fell down towards the huge hanger, “What the pauk!!?” the dock master yelled leaning forwards and closer to the window, the man who’d fell was swiftly joined by another screaming man also on his way head first to the bottom of the hanger, that’s when he heard the plasma casters, “Pauk, Pauk, Pauk!!!” the dock master yelled to himself, he turned and ran towards the general alarm button, it was at that point he became aware of someone to his right he also became aware of the tri laser dots on his head, he froze with his hand above the button and turned slowly, stood to his right was a young female in full battle armor with two spun up plasma casters on her shoulders pointing at his head, 

“Wish to live?” the young female asked in a rather distorted voice, the young cock master nodded slowly, he didn’t want to be killed here he had a young son that he wanted to see grow up, 

“Then take your hand away from that button and lay down on your face” she instructed, the young dock master stepped back from the button and did as she instructed, suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his right side, he looked down and saw that he’d been shot with a dart gun, that’s when the world went black.

“I’ve secured the hanger office” Shena Black Crest said into her wrist comp, 

“Good I’ll be there momentarily just one more problem to deal with” Tik’s voice came through the speaker in her mask, suddenly an armored guard came screaming passed the window head first. 

As she turned to look the door behind her hissed open and Shena spun around with her wrist blades ready to engage, but the figure of Tik eleth in the doorway calmed her, she was looking at the unconscious dock master on the floor, sensing her curiosity Shena spoke, “I’ll only kill those that attack me or try to stop me reaching my male, I’m not here to kill the innocent” she said, Tik eleth nodded at her without saying a word and moved passed her young companion to the main dock terminal, quickly she patched her wrist comp into it and started searching, the easy part was done now they were on board, now they had to find where they were holding her precious son and get him back, she was feeling pretty conflicted right at this moment, for years all she’d dreamed of was coming back here when she had been trapped on that planet, until he met her beloved mate, now she was here her mind was in a spin, part of her wanted to see her family again, the other part wanted to make them answer for the injustices that they inflicted on her, she shook her head to clear it, now was not the time for this nostalgia, her mission here was simple, get her son back.

Using her family’s clearance code Tik was able to get into the Arbiter judicial computer, this is where all the records of judgements passed were kept, she searched for her son’s her name and to her amazement she found it instantly, her eyes widened in shock and she stepped back almost falling until Shena grabbed her and steadied her, “What? What is it?” the young girl asked looking at her new clan Matriarch, 

“He’s been sentenced to a trial by combat” Tik said in a quiet and shocked voice,   
“So? We’ll just get in there and bust him out” Shena said defiantly, her senses realigned thanks to the defiance in the young girl’s voice, she nodded and quickly downloaded the details, it was to be held in the ship’s main arena right now, 

“Come on we have to move!” Tik said and with that the pair of them turned and charged off deep into the ship.

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Ryan stood marveling at the arena he now found himself in, this place was absolutely huge, it had rows upon rows of seats stacked upon each other up in a huge column like structure, as he watched the spectator seats were filling up fast, he was currently in a small room that was attached to the main arena floor by was separated by bars that allowed him to see into but not enter the main arena, on the wall of the cell was a verity of melee weapons, from what looked like a Morningstar to a massive great sword, before they’d undone his chains leaving in him in the room alone both of the Arbiters had actually wished him luck.

As he stood looking at the weapons on the wall he felt a presence behind him and he turned to look, stood in the corner with grey smoke billowing around him was Tan sel eleth, he had his arms folded over his chest and was looking into the arena, he was still dressed in his ceremonial white armor and looked every bit the fierce Yaujta warrior that he had when Ryan had first seen him on the planet, now he turned and regarded the young teen and to Ryan’s amazement his mandibles drew up into a smile, “So this is it huh?” Tan said in his deep gravelly voice, Ryan tilted his head in confusion, “The moment a hybrid Dream Warrior makes Yaujta history, there’s a lot riding on the outcome of this” he continued, 

“No pressure huh?” Ryan said quietly, Tan moved from the wall and walked over to him, it confused Ryan for a second how a warrior in full battle armor of Tan’s size made no noise till he remembered he was a spirit, Tan placed one of his huge hand’s on Ryan’s shoulder and to his surprise it felt as real as his own, 

“I can’t pretend to know the mind of a goddess, but what I do know is that she has bet a lot on you here and for someone like her to have such faith in you, you won’t fail, trust in her and in your Dream Warrior instincts, let them both guide you in this fight and you’ll come out on top, of this I have no doubt” he said, Ryan felt his heart lift at the words of the old grizzled warrior, “Now get out there and show them what the best of both worlds can do” Tan said and Ryan felt his heart fire right up, he nodded and the grizzled old warrior grinned before fading into smoke again, Ryan turned to the weapon wall again and instantly pulled two long swords from it, twirling one in each hand he took a few deep breaths to steel his nerves, as he did he heard the voice of the clan leader boom from somewhere above him, 

“You are gathered here to witness the trial by combat of the hybrid Ryan of the clan Mason, he is charged with being an abomination of nature being both ooman and Yaujta a product of deviancy and also of infecting another of our number with his deviancy, in the form of Shena formerly of the Black Crest family who has been exiled for her part in their deviancy, but Ryan here has opted for a trial by combat, now given this is one of our oldest and most sacred traditions I am honor bound to allow it, he will face the same trials that any full blooded Yaujta would with no difference for his obvious handicap of being part ooman, if he wishes to fight and die like a Yaujta then we will grant him that honor, now that having been said his status as a Dream Warrior cannot be ignored, they are supposed to be the best warriors among us so the trials have been adapted to reflect this” he said, Ryan gritted his teeth at being called an abomination again, his hands tightened around the sword hilts, he was going to show them what this abomination could do, “His first opponent will be a group criminals who have been offered their freedom if they defeat him, so without any further delay let the trial begin!!” the clan leaders voice boomed, as his mind processed that the trials had been changed to reflect him being a Dream Warrior the bars separating the cell from the arena slid into the floor, no time to second guess himself time to act and with a deep breath Ryan charged out into the brightly lit arena.

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Tik eleth jumped forwards and grabbed the guard’s arm right before he was able to push the alarm button, with a quick flourish of her wrist blade she was able to cut it off at the elbow, the guard screamed before she was able to turn and slam his own severed fist into his wide open mandibles and mouth silencing him, quickly she turned to see how her young companion was doing but as she turned she saw Shena leap from a guard rail with the sword of Perseus high above her head, with some serious force she was able to slam it straight through the second guard’s chest so that it pierced not only his chest armor but his back armor as well as it appeared out of his back, then with the momentum of his falling body carrying her she rolled forwards off the body just as it hit the ground pulling the sword free and sprinting full tilt towards the third guard of the group, the guard readied his spear to defend himself but then something strange happened, as Shena readied the sword on the run it glowed blue and in a flash it changed shape, it went from being a 3ft long Katana sword to being a much shorter but wider bladed xiphos sword, Tik’s eyes widened in surprise at this especially as Shena didn’t even seem to notice, she just used it to bat the lunged spear harmlessly away from her before rolling in low and plunging it upwards into the guard’s stomach.

Shena flicked the dead guard’s blood from the sword’s blade and to her surprise she appeared to have a totally different sword in her hand than she’d started with, then as she looked at it it flashed blue and changed back into the long Katana blade she remembered, “What the pauk just happened?” she said looking at the sword, 

“I was about to ask you that same question” Tik said approaching her, Shena looked curiously at the sword, 

“Well Jack did say that this was a Dream Warrior weapon right? So maybe it has some sort of Dream Warrior power infused into it?” Shena said looking curiously at the blade which for some reason seemed to be thrumming quite happily in her hand, it was like the sword was happy to be used again,   
“I wouldn’t doubt it, Dream Warriors have all sorts of mystery’s surrounding them and given some of the stories I’ve heard about them and from the things I’ve seen my beloved do, shape shifting weapons are not out of the realm of imagination” Tik said looking at the shimmering blade, Shena looked at her,

“Well we’d better get moving Paya only knows what’s happening to Ryan at this moment” she said her voice gaining an edge of very real haste to it that snapped Tik back to the present, the Matriarch huntress nodded and both of them charged off down the corridor they were currently following to the ship’s main arena. 

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Ryan stood watching as his five opponents circled him, his heart was hammering in his chest as he watched the group which consisted of three males and two female circled him trying to taunt him into making the first move, but he was trying to keep his mind calm and to remember Tan sel eleth’s words, that’s when an idea hit him, he closed his eyes.

The group circling Ryan watched in surprise as the young teen closed his eyes, they looked at each other in confusion, up until this they had being trying to taunt him into attacking one of them so that the others could get behind him and hit him in the back, they were hesitant to attack out right because they knew that this was a Dream Warrior that they were facing, but then when he closed his eyes on of the groups males got a shot of confidence, he raised his war hammer high above his head and he charged right at the young boy with a mighty roar.

The sound of the male’s running feet echoed in Ryan’s mind, it was like watching a stone skipping across a pond in slow motion, each step creating ripples of sound and pressure, then just when the ripples washed over him from close by his eyes snapped open and he moved.

The young teen moved so fast that not one of the others actually seen him move, he just seemed to shimmer and then suddenly he wasn’t where he was originally, he was about twenty feet away looking like he just landed from a jump, then they all turned back to the male who had run at him just in time to see a verity of wounds open up on his body, one under each arm right in the pit and one at the back of each knee, the male yelled in pain and dropped to his knees but they wouldn’t support him so he fell onto his face, then as they watched four huge jets of blood shot from the wounds on the male’s body, it appeared that the cuts that the boy had inflicted had severed his arteries, this would cause him to bleed out in seconds, as their attention switched from the stricken male back to the boy they all discovered he’d gone, well not far, he was stood directly behind the second of the four in the semi-circle they were stood in, as the two furthest away watched he plunged both his swords through her back and then kicked off her body before sprinting so fast they could barely see him towards them, the fourth member of their group was just stood there as still as a statue as if frozen in fear, the teen reached the third one and easily batted aside the downward strike from his mace before turning on his axis and severing his arm at the elbow with one sword and then pivoting and plunging his other straight through his heart.

The fourth member of this team stood there staring at the young boy in disbelief, Dream Warrior or not moving like that was impossible surely? But then before he had chance to contemplate this Ryan appeared directly in front of him and his arms swung in a scissor motion across his chest, then slowly he turned and showed his back to the male and appeared to flick both of his swords to his sides to clear the blood from the blades, “How dare you show your pauking back to me!!” the male roared but none of the words seemed to come out of his mouth, then he tried to reach for the boy but his arms didn’t respond, suddenly he had a feeling of falling and he felt the impact on the floor of the arena, he had a strange feeling of rolling before he found himself looking up at a headless body stood over him, which was oddly familiar, then it collapsed on top of him and the world went black.

As the male behind him collapsed Ryan saw the first one he’d reached in the group after the male had attacked him start to fall, her head slowly peeled back from her body and fell down to the floor swiftly followed by her body, he glanced around and saw that all of the criminals sent to kill him lay dead around him, it was at that point that the world around him seemed to return to normal speed, up until that point everything seemed to have been moving in super slow motion for him, he looked up at the crowd in the arena and at first there was silence, then slowly a single solitary clap could be heard, this was swiftly joined by another and then another, swiftly cheering broke out and yelling as well. Ryan looked at this spectacle rather confused, here was a symbol of something that they were supposed to hate, in their eyes he was supposed to be an abomination a freak of nature, a product of an illicit union but here they were cheering at his victory, suddenly the voice of the clan leader boomed over the crowd, “It appears that the young Dream Warrior has passed his first trial, will he be as capable with his second?” he said, from behind him Ryan heard the sound of something opening and he turned to face it, a huge door slowly opened behind him like a giant mouth yawing open, out of it poured four huge lizards that looked like the Dragons that his father used to tell him stories of when he and Sela were little, they were all as black as the night sky with huge wings on their backs, they had to be at least at least twenty foot long tip to tail, they had huge oblong shaped mouths full of rows of razor sharp teeth, as Ryan readied himself, he just hoped like pauk that they couldn’t breathe fire.

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“Pauk you!!!!” Shena screamed as she leapt on to the guard’s back plunging the spear that she was now apparently holding through his back, with enough force that it punched straight through him and into the second gaud that the impact of her hitting him in the back had shoved him into, as she tore it back the weapons switched forms again this time becoming a curved dagger that curved backwards down her forearm, as it turned out that this was perfect for deflecting an incoming hit from a third guard that swung his wrist blades at her, as the blades glanced along the blade a shower of sparks flew from both blades, Shena quickly ducked into the hit and a swift kick to his male pride brought him down to her level where she was able to grab his head and run the razor sharp blade across his throat causing bright green blood to spray out in every direction and for him to make a gurgling noise, to her left Tik had literally just torn a guard’s head clean off her shoulders and thrown it at another with enough force to knock her off her feet, then while running at another Shena watched as without breaking her stride she plunged her wrist blades down through the fallen female’s chest before continuing on to her now retreating target, neither of them wanted to use their plasma casters as they would trigger alarms all over the ship as the weapons fire was detected, this method while slower was much stealthier.

Shena watched as Tik eleth leapt full tilt onto the back of the retracting guard and slammed both of her dual wrist blades through his chest before performing a backwards flip off him and landing on her feet as he was kicked into the ground face first, watching the Mason clan Matriarch fight was something else, she really was the epitome of a proud Yaujta huntress, she was far more graceful than any of her opponents and faster as well, combine these with her sheer strength and determination and now she realized why they’d called her a force of nature, since both of them had started this they’d both barely suffered a wound between them there had been a few cuts here and there by a lucky strike from a guards blade, but pretty much nothing made it past the armor that Jack had made, Shena had never in her life fought in something so comfortable and easy to move in while being so strong that it could take a direct hit from a smart disc and deflect it away, which had happened to them two floors down, one of the door guards had thrown it at her before she’d had chance to react, but her shoulder pauldron had simply deflected the spinning disc harmlessly away to embed itself in a wall, as she stood back up properly she noticed that Tik was watching a screen that the guards had been looking at, she walked over and joined her new clan Matriarch, on the screen appeared to be a view of a massive arena, in the arena was what appeared to be four gigantic lizards, “Vexor lizards” Tik said through gritted mandibles, then the screen flicked to a sight that filled Shena with both hope and dread, it was Ryan, he was right in the middle of the four lizards, as they watched he rolled out of the way of a tail strike from one of the massive lizards before sprinting so fast that the camera couldn’t follow him properly, he appeared to be running up the massive lizard’s tail that had just swung at him, using the spiky ridges on its back for purchase he was able to springboard himself right up on the back of the head of the beast where he appeared to jam both of his swords into its eye sockets, the might lizard thrashed around and threw him off but it was too late for it the damage was done, in one last twirl it fell down dead.

Tik roared proudly as he watched her son fell the mighty lizard before racing across the arena directly towards another, by the speed and grace of his movements and by the way he was easily able to evade incoming attacks she knew that he was a true Dream Warrior, only one with the gifts that a Dream Warrior was blessed with could move like that, she watched him dodge attacks long before they had even begun leaving the rather confused lizards struggling to keep up with him movements as he danced and jumped around the arena, then just as one of the lizards lunged at him with a massive bite she watched him dodge left before springing back and jumping onto the back of its head, it tried to shrug him off but before it could he grabbed it’s head with both hands, this time he didn’t used his sword but his bare hands, then to her utter amazement the lizard’s glowing red eyes flickered before changing to bright purple the same as Ryan’s, then instead of jumping down Ryan was lowered softly to the ground by the massive lizard which then turned and roared at its two remaining companions, as she watched in sheer amazement the Vexor lizard charged at one of the two others while Ryan charged at the other, then she was startled back to reality by Shena’s hand on her arm, “Come on we can’t stay here” the young huntress said Tik nodded and with one last glance at the screen she and the young huntress turned and headed towards the arena again.

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To his left Ryan’s new pet tackled one of the two remaining lizards, he didn’t know where the idea had come from but when he’d jumped onto it’s back he’d instantly been swamped by the creatures primitive feelings and thoughts, so instead of killing it he had decided to try melding his own thoughts with it’s just like he would with a fully sentient being, to his amazement it had worked and now he could feel a connection formed between them, it allowed him to give the lizard instructions and it responded like a well-trained pet, so while it was fighting with the other lizard he was able to now take on the other remaining lizard, this one turned towards him and reared up spreading its huge wings in an attempt to intimidate him, that didn’t work all it did was give Ryan an idea, just before the large lizard came crashing down he put on a burst of speed and shot right underneath it flipping himself into a roll which he stopped halfway and aimed both of his swords upwards, the large beast slammed down hard and with enough force for Ryan’s twin swords to pierce it’s hard under belly, this time it reared up not in display but in pain, as it did Ryan flicked himself up onto one of his swords and pulled the other free then with a mighty bound he kicked off the sword, this propelled him upwards towards his target, the creature’s throat, but before he could land the killer blow the mighty lizard swatted him from the air like a fly.  
The force of the blow sent Ryan sailing backwards through the air like an arrow straight into the arena wall, he hit it with enough force to knock the wind right out of him, it also caused him to become dizzy for a second, he felt warm blood trickling down his face and down his back from where his body had hit the wall, he regained his senses just in time to see the lizard that he’d attacked open it massive jaws in a huge bite, an idea struck him, instead of dodging out of the way Ryan propelled himself forwards and straight into the massive beast’s mouth.

The crowd gasped and yelled as they saw the young Dream Warrior get eaten by the beast, but then to their shock they saw the beast that had eaten him start gagging and reaching for its throat, in an instant a small object appeared poking out of the creature’s long neck and it moved downwards like a zipper, it took them a second to realize that Ryan had actually slit the beast’s throat from the inside, that was until he appeared out of the hole he’d just made in its wind pipe, the massive lizard dropped onto the floor and rolled around gasping for air while it’s blood sprayed in all directions, in fact he emerged just in time to see his new friend grab the other lizard by the neck and with a might whip like movement break its neck.

As the third and final hostile lizard fell Ryan walked over to his new friend, the massive lizard lowered its head to the young Dream Warrior who reached up and stroked its leathery scales around its face, the entire crowd erupted in huge cheers, Ryan could even hear some people chanting his name over and over again, he was exhausted now, keeping himself going at this pace was taking a huge toll on his body and he didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to keep this up, “Well it appears that our young Dream Warrior has made a friend in the arena, he’s going to need it too because the next trial will be a test of his sheer will to survive and the strength of his convictions” the clan leader’s voice boomed over the crowd, Ryan heard yet another door opening behind him and to his dread he heard a very familiar shrieking hissing noise coming from it, as he turned he was faced with not one not two but three kiande amedha queens heading slowly out of the door, he also became aware of rather a lot of plasma casters being trained on them, as his father would say, the c’jit really had hit the fan now.


	39. The Power of a Furry Heart

The hut wasn’t massive but it was comfortable for both of them, it had a surprising amount of amenities in the form of electric lights and running water, it also had a fair sized fire place with a grill and two pots for cooking, there was even a table and chairs for them to eat at.

Both Sela eleth and Jack were both impressed at the ingenuity of Yoshi Namboku and his team for creating this place, Sela dropped down on one of the beds which had been made from a wooden frame with a mattress that had been stuffed with what appeared to be fur and bird feathers, it was actually incredibly soft and comfortable, it kinda reminded her of her bed at home.

Sela let out a happy sigh as she kicked her boots off and laid back on the bed, Jack grinned at his daughter, “You always did know how to make yourself at home anywhere” he said playfully, she grinned back at him,

“That’s all the camping and hunting trips you and mother took us on” she shot back, Jack laughed as he opened two shutter door like windows which let day light flood in to the hut, as he did he felt arms wrap themselves around him from behind and pull him into an embrace, 

“Thank you for coming for us” Sela eleth said pressing her face into her father’s back, Jack turned around to face his young daughter and pulled her into a tight embrace, 

“We’d have torn the universe apart to find you both” he said quietly into his daughter’s hair, 

“I know” she said quietly as she clung to him, then she looked up at him with those gorgeous big blue eyes of hers and his heart melted as he saw the tears in them, quickly he pulled her head into his shoulder careful not hit her head against his pauldrons, 

“Oh baby don’t cry” he said softly stroking her hair as he felt her sobbing softly,

“I’m sorry father I’m just so happy to be back with you again” she said as she sobbed gently.

A sudden noise to their left disturbed their little moment and both of them turned to look, much to their amazement there was a small white furry creature currently in the process of sneaking in through the open window, Sela eleth instantly disengaged from her father’s embrace and scrambled to pull a weapon, the small white creature froze looking at them in shock, before she could draw her weapon and attack the obviously hostile invader Sela’s father grabbed her wrist and stopped her, she looked at him in confusion, “Don’t, it won’t hurt you” he said looking at the surprised little creature, it was at that moment that Sela noticed the look of total surprise on her father’s face, 

“What is it?” she asked looking at the hostile invader,   
“It’s a pauking house cat” Jack said in total disbelief.

Jack crouched down and looked at the small white house cat which had suddenly just invaded their hut, “How the hell did you get here?” he asked the small cat as it looked at him curiously with its bright golden eyes, the cat meowed at him and then strolled over to the heavily armored man and brushed up against him with a soft purr, he stroked its soft fur as if not believing what he was actually seeing, but it’s fur was as soft as velvet and as real as his own hand, 

“What’s a cat?” Sela eleth asked watching the small white creature with suspicion,

“They’re kept as pets on my home world, they’re like a very small version of the Patori Tigers that your mum loves hunting back at home” Jack replied, then the little house cat seemed to notice the suspicious Yaujta girl watching it in a crouch and made a bee line right for her, before she had chance to react the little cat jumped right up on to her shoulder.

Sela eleth jumped up and screamed as the small furry thing that her father had called a ‘cat’ showed it’s true nature by viciously assaulting her by jumping onto her shoulder armor and instantly entangling itself in her hair, it even seemed to be emitting some form of war cry which came across as some sort of purring noise, she desperately tried to remove her attacker but it seemed to have somehow got itself entangled in her long hair behind her head where she couldn’t quite reach it, rather than rush to her aid her father seemed to have dissolved into fits of giggles despite her desperate plight to remove her attacker, finally she was able to grab her attacker and whirl it around so that it was in front of her, “I think it likes you” her father said as she stood there holding the deviant creature known only as ‘cat’, she looked at him then at the small furry creature that she found herself holding by its sides, it wiggled it’s little legs in an attempt to break free of her grip, her father walked over and took the cat from her and cradled it, but as soon as he did it jumped straight back onto Sela’s shoulder again, this instantly set off Sela’s defense mechanism again and she tried in vain to grab the small creature, “It’s harmless and it just wants to be your friend” her father said with a rather curious and amused grin plastered on his face, 

“It’s got a funny way of showing it!!” Sela exclaimed as she again tried to disentangle the cat from her dread locks, finally she got hold of it and pulled it in front of her again, but this time the cat decided it wanted to grip her front and it pulled itself into her front, this forced Sela to almost have to cradle the small creature, as she did it slowly reached up and placed a remarkably soft paw on one of her mandibles, as she brought it closer to her face for closer inspection it decided to run its face and head over her cheek, she had to admit it’s fur was remarkably soft.

Sela eleth looked at the little white cat as it desperately tried to run its face along the side of hers, she noticed it seemed to be wearing a collar with what looked like some sort of little silver bell on it, as she looked at it the cat ran its cheek over her mandibles again, it seemed absolutely fascinated by them, for some reason unknown to her she opened them and extended them a little, the cat instantly took notice and gently pawed at the tips of them, it didn’t hurt her more tickled than anything, she looked up at her father to once again find him grinning at her, “Ok I’ll admit it’s kinda cute” she said in a mildly annoyed voice, his grin simply widened.

After a few minutes of playing with the little cat Sela eleth had gotten quite attached to the friendly little creature, she’d sat down on her bed with it and it had immediately started bounding around the bed and bouncing around and rolling over the place, Sela couldn’t help giggling at the antics of the little creature, it seemed totally fascinated by both her mandibles and her dread locks, it tried to chase her dreads as she turned her head and swatted at them with its paws before falling over and rolling over on its back, “I get the feeling that someone out there in the village is missing this little guy” her father said running a hand over the cat’s back right down to its tail, 

“How do you think he got here?” Sela asked as she gently pushed the cat over on his side only for him to roll over and bound around her back and leap at her dread locks again,

“Good question, he’s not exactly worthy prey is he?” Jack said watching as the small cat swung from his daughter’s dread locks before climbing up onto her shoulder armor and rubbing himself against the side of her head, 

“Not really” Sela replied smiling as she rubbed the small cat’s head causing him to emit that purring noise again, 

“Well given how much he seems to have taken to you why don’t you take him out and see if you can find who he belongs to?” Jack said, Sela nodded and stood up with the little cat balancing on her shoulder, she’d been meaning to go and take a proper look at the village anyway, 

“I’ll be back soon” she said and headed for the door with the little white cat riding on her shoulder,

“Be careful out there, some people might be a little nervous of you Sela” Jack said concern etched into his voice, 

“I’ll be fine father” she said smiling at his obvious care for her safety, he nodded but his face still showed some angst, with one last wave and reassuring smile she turned and headed out.

The village itself was rather spread out throughout the cave, as she surveyed it Sela eleth noticed just how clever they had been in setting it up, the main shaft of light that came down from the hole in the ceiling had no buildings or any structures directly inside it, the only things that were inside it was a large statue of what looked like Paya and a couple of those mirrors they used for redirecting the light around the cavern. Sela eleth thought about putting on her hunting mask to help her see the people in the gloom, but decided against it as she knew these people were going to be pretty nervous of her already, she figured that if they could see her face and see that she was different from the bad bloods it might help them to accept her, or at least that was the theory.

Sela eleth could see people milling about in the various parts of the village and in the shadows, she could feel multiple sets of eyes on her and it unnerved her slightly so she decided to focus on her task, she wondered where to start looking for the little cat’s owner, then an idea struck her, if she was in the brightly lit area of the cavern someone might she the little white cat on her shoulder and approach her, so she headed down to where the large statue of Paya stood.

As she reached it Sela looked up at the massive statue of the goddess of the hunt, it appeared to be ancient and had vines growing all over it, she had heard her Matriarch prey to her more than once in her life, like once when she and her brother had gotten really ill with a virus she had been unconscious for two days, when she had come to she had heard her matriarch at the foot of her bed praying to Paya for her recovery.

The statue appeared to be made of white marble and various pieces had been broken off over the centuries that it had stood here, the marble still looked strong for as long as it had stood though, it depicted the Goddess Paya standing with a skull in one hand and a spear in the other showing the vanquishing of her enemies, for some reason Sela felt an urge to reach out and touch the statue, as she did and felt the sunlight warmed stone under her hand she heard a familiar voice, “Boo! Where are you Boo?” it called, she released the statue in shock wondering if the voice had come from the stone, then she heard the soft patter of running feet and she turned to look.

“Boo!? Where have you gone now Boo!!?” the voice called, Sela eleth looked for the source and it didn’t take her long to spot it, it appeared to be the young girl called Amy, she was running around the village in a bit of a panic, Sela glanced up at the little white cat on her shoulder,

“I wonder if your name is Boo?” she asked the cat, who just made that strange meow noise in response, she stroked his head and it instantly turned into a purr, “Let’s go find out shall we?” she said to the purring cat, then she turned and headed to intercept the young girl.

As soon as she spotted Sela eleth heading towards her Amy turned and ran towards her, “Sela eleth you haven’t seen my cat Boo have you?” she asked, Sela eleth was confused by this question considering she currently had him riding on her shoulder, that’s when she realized he’d retreated in between her dread locks again, at the sound of his name being called the white cat popped his head out from between Sela’s dreads and peered down from his high perch at the young girl, “Boo!! There you are!!” Amy exclaimed happily holding her arms our for the little cat, Sela eleth decided that allowing the girl to remove him was easier than trying to untangle him herself, so she kneeled down and allowed Amy to catch hold of him and pull him out from in between her dread locks, the little white cat looked a lot bigger in Amy’s arms than he did in either hers or her fathers.

“Thank you so much for saving Boo Sela eleth!!” Amy said gratefully as she fussed the white cat who was purring loudly and nuzzling his owner, Sela eleth smiled at the obvious love the young girl had for the small creature, 

“No saving was involved, he simply tried to sneak into our hut and I decided to see who he belonged to” Sela said honestly, Amy smiled up at her, 

“He’s such a silly cat sometimes, but he’s always curious and loves to meet new people” Amy said stroking the purring cat’s head as he clung to her chest, 

“Why do you call him Boo?” Sela asked curiously, 

“Because he looks like he’s seen a ghost” Amy said smiling, Sela clicked her mandibles at this not quite getting it, must be an ooman thing, but then her father was ooman and he saw ghosts all the time and he didn’t look like this small cat.

When she looked back at Amy she found the small girl looking at her curiously again, “So that’s how you guys make that noise” she said, Sela eleth cocked her head curiously at this, 

“When I was in the jungle I would hear this clicking noise but I never knew who was making it, I had a feeling it was the people who brought me here, but I could never see them, only hear them” Amy said, Sela’s anger flashed in her head at the bad bloods for such a despicable and horrific act as bringing a defenseless child here to be bait,

“I’m nothing like those pauking animals!” Sela said in an angry voice that made Amy jump,

“Sorry I didn’t mean to make you mad Sela, please don’t be angry with me” the young girl said tearing up, the young girl’s grief instantly snapped Sela eleth out of her anger, she kneeled down to bring herself to eye level with the young girl,

“My apologies Amy I did not mean to upset you, I am not angry with you, I am angry with those pauking cowardly bad bloods for bringing you here and making you suffer this” she said placing a hand on the young girl’s shoulder, before she could react Amy threw her arms around Sela’s neck and pulled herself in against her, in fact if it wasn’t for Boo’s lightning fast cat reflexes he’d have been squished between them, but as it was he was able to escape just in time to the safety of Sela eleth’s shoulder amour.

The impromptu hug startled Sela eleth but she instantly realized that Amy just needed comforting and she put her arms around the young girl’s sobbing shoulders and hugged her back, something about this made her remember how her Matriarch would hold her when she needed comforting when she was a child, now here she was fourteen years later comforting a child in exactly the same way, it made her smile when she realized that.

Gradually Amy’s sobs faded and she released Sela a little so that she could look into her face, as she got a close up of the young girl’s tear streaked face Sela did something out of instinct that surprised her, she used her mandibles to wipe Amy’s tears away, just like her Matriarch used to do for her.

Amy smiled as Sela used her mandibles to wipe away her tears, she looked right into the alien girl’s bright blue eyes and saw the caring concern in them, she didn’t let go of the alien girl and kept her arms around her strong neck “You have really pretty eyes” Amy said smiling at Sela, 

“I get them from my father” Sela replied proudly, she was happy at the compliment, 

“Do you miss him?” Amy asked, Sela looked at her curiously, 

“I miss my mom and my dad, it’s been so long since I’ve seen them” Amy said, Sela looked at her sadly knowing what she meant, 

“I’m sure they miss you too” she said, Amy nodded sadly, 

“Do you think they’re looking for me?” Amy asked, Sela nodded,

“I’ll bet they are, no true parent would ever give up on finding their child if they were lost” Sela said, that seemed to brighten the little girl up, 

“Really?” she asked, Sela nodded, 

“Really, just take my father, he travelled halfway across the galaxy just to find and save me now he’s found me I get to fight at his side when he takes on the bad bloods” Sela eleth said proudly as she thought of getting to stand shoulder to shoulder with her father in battle, Amy looked confused, 

“I didn’t see any other aliens with you when you guys came in?” she said, Sela eleth drew her mandibles up into a massive smile,

“Did you see the big guy dressed in all white amour with the big cape and a load of swords on him?” Sela asked, Amy nodded, 

“Yeah I saw him!! For some reason he looked like he was glowing and I remember thinking he looked really handsome, sorta like a knight in the films me and my dad used to watch” Amy said, Sela eleth’s smile widened, 

“My Matriarch would defiantly agree with you” she said, Amy looked confused,

“What’s a Matriarch?” Amy asked trying slowly to pronounce the word, 

“It’s what we call our mothers” Sela eleth said,   
“Oh, why do you call them that? What’s wrong with mom?” Amy asked, Sela laughed out loud at the young girl’s delightful innocence and beautiful curiosity,

“Nothing, but it’s a term that shows them the respect they deserve for not only bringing us into this world but raising us, in my case it more literal because my mother is the Matriarch of our clan” Sela said smiling, as she did she felt something tickling her mandible and she saw a white furry paw trying to stroke her face again.

Amy seemed to contemplate what Sela eleth had just said and it seemed to make sense to her, but then something confused her, “So why would your Matriarch agree with me about the man in white?” she asked, 

“Because he’s my father” Sela said causing Amy’s eyes to widen in surprise, 

“But-But-But he’s one of my kind!?” she stammered in a very surprised voice, Sela nodded, 

“Yup, you see I’m only half Yaujta, but I’m half ooman too” she said, Amy looked curious again, 

“What’s a Yaujta?” she asked, Sela sighed, this was going to take some explaining, 

“Let’s find somewhere to sit down and I’ll tell you all about them” she said, Amy nodded happily, she loved stories, 

“Over there by the big pretty statue in the sun, it’s really warm and nice” Amy said excitedly pointing, Sela nodded and followed the now skipping girl with Boo the cat riding shotgun on her shoulder, Amy found them a nice spot to sit down and Sela eleth did have to admit it was rather nice here, then she looked at the expectant girl and took a deep breath, then began the tale of the Yaujta as told by Sela eleth of the clan Mason.

Sela eleth told Amy all she knew of the mighty Yaujta race from memory, her Matriarch had told her so many stories of battles and of hunts as a girl that she had committed to memory that she had plenty to call on, Amy sat fascinated as she listened, it appeared that Sela had acquired her mother’s gift for story telling as more than once she had the young girl on the edge of her seat with tales of mighty monsters vanquished by even mightier hunters and huntresses. The stories were often interrupted with little bursts of playing with Boo who often got restless, they were also often interrupted with bursts of untangling him from Sela’s dread locks which he had taken a massive fascination with.

When she was finished telling Amy about the Yaujta she had told her the story of how her father had met her Matriarch and had looked at her to gauge her reaction, the girl sat there deep in thought while stroking her little white purring cat who had finally given up on chasing Sela’s moving dreads and had flopped down on his owner’s lap where he now lay purring contentedly, “It’s like a fairytale, boy meets a captured princess and fights for her freedom and her love and wins it” Amy said causing Sela eleth to smile broadly, her father had told her some of Earth’s fairytales and she’d always been fascinated by the people that’s referred to as ‘Princesses’ and what it would be like to be one.

Amy had also taken the time to tell Sela eleth of how she’d gotten to be here too, sh told her of how the bad bloods had kidnapped her from Earth and had dropped her in with other children in order to try and lure out the adults, Sela nodded having already heard of this from Cortez, but it still made her blood boil how the bad blood scum could use innocents in this way, it was a merciless and despicable act that warranted no forgiveness or mercy to the one who perpetrated it, silently she swore vengeance on Amy’s behalf and for those that had fallen in those times, when she and her father went to battle with these scum, she would show them no quarter and no mercy.

Suddenly Amy looked at her and said something that surprised her, “I wish I was a Yaujta or half Yaujta like you” she said, this caused Sela’s brow to shoot up and her mandibles to fall open, 

“Why?” she asked looking at the young girl who wasn’t looking at her face now but concentrating on playing with her cat, 

“Because then I’d be strong like you, then I could fight the bad guys who brought us here and I could make them pay for what they did to my friends and for what they did to Robert” she said quietly, this caught Sela’s full attention, 

“What did they do to Robert?” she asked quietly, Amy was looking down at her cat so all Sela could see was the top of her head, but she straight away noticed the tears dropping off her nose and into Boo’s white fur, he noticed too and stood up to nuzzle her face, Sela couldn’t help but smile at the little cat’s attempt to soothe his owners pain, then she reached out with one hand and placed it on the young girl’s shoulder, with her other she gently lifted her chin so that she was again looking at her face, 

“They made him watch Sela, they made him watch” she said through hicuppy sobs, 

“Made him watch what?” Sela asked softly, Amy took a deep breath,

“They killed his parents Sela, they skinned and killed his parent right in front of him and made him watch” Amy said through sobs.

This hit Sela eleth like a punch to the heart, suddenly the hostility made perfect sense to her, to him she was a symbol of everything he’d have come to hate, suddenly Sela’s anger was bubbling again, “Those honorless pauking cowards!!” she said with real venom in her voice, Amy looked at her curiously through her tear filled eyes, “To revel in the pain of an innocent, to take their family from them and make them watch the pain and the fear of the ones they love, what sort of sick pauk does that!?” Sela growled so menacingly that it made Amy’s eyes widen, Sela noticed the effect her anger was having on the frightened young girl and she calmed down, “My apologies Amy but when I hear of bad bloods doing things like this it makes my blood boil” she said, Amy smiled at her, 

“That’s cause you’re a good person Sela” the young girl said with a smile, then she looked curious, 

“Bad blood you’ve said that before, what are they?” she asked, 

“Criminals, exiles, honorless scum that don’t believe in rules, they don’t care about anyone or anything except themselves, they are the worst of the worst” Sela eleth replied, Amy seemed to understand this, 

“Is that why they’re so nasty to everyone?” she asked, Sela nodded, then Amy suddenly got really animated and jumped to her feet so suddenly that she sent a rather confused looking Boo flying, “Then we have to tell Robert, we have to show him that all Yaujta are not bad people” Amy said in a rather exited voice, a sudden blush found its way to Sela eleth’s face as she thought of the young human boy, but then it was also a joined by a few pangs of pain and sadness to her heart, 

“That may not be possible Amy” she said quietly as the displaced Boo clambered himself up on to her shoulders before getting tangled back up in her dreadlocks, the young girl looked at her with both a surprised and confused look on her young face, 

“Why not?” she asked, 

“To suffer that much pain, to see the one’s you love struck down and brutally murdered before his eyes by what to him would have looked like my kind, how do you come back from something like that?” Sela said with great sadness in her voice, suddenly the young girl appeared right in front of her but Sela didn’t even see her move, she placed a hand on Sela’s shoulder, 

“Then we’ll show him that you’re not the same, we’ll show him that you’re different and besides Boo like you and that counts for something, he’s a really good judge of character” Amy said smiling, Sela glanced over her shoulder at the little white cat who appeared to be trying to use her dreadlocks as some sort of hammock, then she looked back at Amy and smiled back at the smiling girl, her enthusiasm was kinda infectious, 

“Alright, I guess it can’t hurt to try” she said softly which concealed how much her heart was pounding at the thought of this, Amy smiled broadly, 

“Awesome, we’re going to show Robert that you’re proud honorable Yaujta huntress and not some filthy honorless, criminal scum” she said, then without warning she proceeded to grab Sela’s hand and try to pull her to her feet, but Sela’s muscle density made her a fair bit heavier than she looked, but the young girl’s enthusiasm and effort made her smile, so she aided the young girl in pulling her to her feet and even allowed her to lead her by the hand in the direction of her hut, this was really going to be interesting, all Sela could hope was that Robert would be willing to listen to her side of things and not just hate her because of what she looked like, it was a big hope.  
Meanwhile Boo just enjoyed the ride swinging freely in his new comfy living hammock at the back of Sela’s head.


	40. Hail to the Queen.

With each footstep that the queens took the whole arena seemed to shake underfoot, Ryan was panting heavily as he watched them slowly encircling him and his new friend, this constant combat and having to almost constantly use his Dream Warrior abilities had really taken its toll and he was exhausted.

Ryan had never seen one of these creatures up close before but the way his Matriarch had described them so vividly in her stories had painted a very explicit picture of them in his head, they were so feared that to beat one of these things was described as holding one of the highest honor in Yaujta society, so how the hell was he expected to beat three of the things at once?

That’s when it hit him, he wasn’t supposed to beat them, from the very beginning they’d stacked the deck against him, they couldn’t afford him to win because of what he represented and if he won they’d be forced under their own laws to acknowledge him and what he represented, as this realization sunk in Ryan felt a cold worm of determination crawl up his spine and into his chest, it seemed to reach his heart and with every beat spread to the very furthest points of his body like a cold fire. He felt his grip on his swords tighten and he heard the leather on the grips creak slightly as his fingers bit into them, he felt his heart start to beat more steadily and he felt strength return to his limbs, his body was preparing itself for the fight of his life.

The nearest of the huge creatures regarded Ryan with an almost curious head tilt, she seemed to be more threatened by the hissing angry lizard to his left, but a swift and shrill shriek soon silenced Ryan’s Vexor lizard, he could feel fear ebbing from the big lizard in waves, he needed to act quickly before his companion’s resolve died, so turning quickly to look at the nearest of the massive creatures he stared her down, she seemed almost fascinated by him in the way she kept coking her head from side to side as if she couldn’t quite gauge if he was a threat to her or not, a sudden idea sprung into his mind and he decided to make it count, so focusing his strength into his speed he took off directly at the massive female at top speed.

The queen shrieked in both surprise and anger at his sudden move and responded by cracking her long barbed tail in his direction, but at this speed he saw it coming a mile off and was easily able to dodge around it and use his swords to deflect the barbed tip as it jabbed over his head, in fact that was exactly how he’d hoped that she’d respond to his sudden burst of speed, as she pulled her tail back to try again he reached out and grabbed hold of it, this yanked him off his feet and swung him around her back at incredible speed, using this velocity increase Ryan released at the last possible second and hit the wall, using a combination of the velocity from the queen’s tail and his own strength he kicked off the wall backwards which sent him soaring into a high arc, he was upside down now looking down on the confused queen from above as he held his arms out to his sides to stabilize his body during the large arching backflip, he just hoped that he’d judged this right.  
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The guard’s head imploded with a shower of glowing green blood as Shena slammed the Sword of Perseus down on him, it had managed to change itself into a rather large two handed bastard sword this time which had caused her to have to change her attack pattern at the last minute, she had been using speed to confuse him right up until this moment, from her right she heard a massive roar and turned to look just in time to see Tik tear another guard’s arms from their sockets and proceed to beat him rather violently with them, as she watched this she was rather glad that the clan Matriarch was on her side, she made a quick mental note never to anger her soon to be mother in law and moved on to the next guard who now had a picture of pure fear painted on his face as he watched the two advancing females.

After they were finished with the last of the guards Tik and Shena headed through the freshly hacked open door into the arena, as they walked down the dark corridor that led them to where the prisoners were transferred to the cells that led them into the arena Tik glanced at her young companion, “Brace yourself for a serious fight here young one, what we’ve faced so far is nothing compared to what we’re going to face on the other side of these doors” she said, Shena nodded with an air of cold determination, but before they reached the doors a lone figure walked out in front of them, Shena’s face hardened as she saw who it was, “That’s the Arbiter that took Ryan from me” she growled in a voice filled with rage, instantly Tik’s face hardened behind her mask, so this was the pauk responsible for taking her beloved son.

Oddly the figure didn’t move as the two angry female swiftly approached him, also odd was the fact that he didn’t seem to be armed with anything, but it was only when she got close that Tik noticed something that stopped her in her tracks, it was his eyes.

Reaching out a hand she stopped Shena from advancing, the young girl turned to glance at the Matriarch with confusion on her face, Tik gestured for her to wait as she sensed something very wrong here, finally he spoke.

“You’re Tik eleth aren’t you?” he asked in a cracking voice, 

“I am and you’re the Arbiter that took my son for this vile judgement aren’t you?” she replied in a calm voice that had obvious barely restrained anger bubbling under it,

“I am, my name is Fen Ra Sharna and I want you to know how very sorry I am before you pass your judgement upon me” he said, his words surprised both Tik and Shena and they both glanced at each other, 

“If you are sorry that you did it why did you do it in the first place?” Shena roared at him, he looked directly at her for the first time and his eyes stunned her enough to cause her to take a step backwards, they were they eyes of a haunted man, full of fear and pain and anguish, 

“You have to believe me when I say that I thought that I was doing what was right, but he showed me, he showed me just how wrong I was about everything, all that pain, all that suffering that I have caused to so many, all that love I have destroyed because of my blind ignorance, I am responsible for this, I have taken so much beauty from this dark universe and burned it to ash, I am unforgivable” he said in a voice so filled with pain that Tik actually felt sorry for him, what had her son done to him?

“Showed you how?” Shena asked suspiciously,

“He showed me his life, every thought, every feeling, every want, every love, I saw it all” the arbiter said in a pitiful voice, then he looked at Shena, 

“He loves you you know, it burns in his heart like an unstoppable fire, such a beautiful and powerful thing and I tried to destroy it in my ignorance, it’s what’s driving him out there I’m sure of it, I know I don’t deserve it but please forgive me, I had no idea that such a beautiful thing could exist between different species” he said, Shena clenched her hand to her breastplate as she thought of the male she loved out there fighting for his life, then an idea struck her, 

“If you want to be forgiven for your crimes then you must repent for them” she said, she noticed Tik glance at her curiously from her right, the Arbiter’s eyes brightened with what looked like a ray of hope, 

“Repent how?” he asked, 

“Join us and help us fight to get him back, you said you were ignorant, well now that my beloved has awakened you to the truth that you were blind to, so that’s no longer an excuse, now it’s your turn to stand up like a true Yaujta warrior and fight for what’s right” she said in a rather strong and proud voice, Tik eleth actually found herself rather impressed by her young companion’s ingenuity, pretty smart to turn your enemy to your cause, the Arbiter stared pacing back and forth as if he was having an internal debate but then he rushed up and grabbed Shena’s hands, his sudden movements caused Tik to nearly take his head off, but when she could see that he meant her no harm she stopped herself, 

“You’re right, by the goddess you’re right! It’s so simple! I’ll fight for you, I’ll help you get him back and after that I’ll fight to stop all of this” he said with what sounded like happiness in his voice, then he released her hands and turned to face Tik eleth who was now holding out a sword to him, 

“Betray us and I’ll skin you alive” she said in a menacing voice, he took the sword, 

“Don’t worry they’ll never fool me again, your son showed me the truth and now I know what I must do” he said, then looking back at Shena he smiled, 

“Thank you” he said, she nodded and together the three of them turned and moved towards the cell doors that lead into the arena.

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Ryan’s back flip maneuver paid off as when he flipped his legs back under himself he managed to land right on top of the queen’s ridged head, he grabbed hold of the leathery ridges and held fast he saw his Vexor lizard throw itself at the queen nearest to it and now the two were locked in a bitter struggle as they clawed and shrieked at each other, the queen quickly thrashed and tried to unseat him from on top of her head, with his left hand he grabbed ahold of the side of her face and screamed, “Let me see you!!!” as he pumped the last of his strength into once again triggering his Dream Warrior abilities and with a rush his conciseness joined with the queen’s.

The queen’s mind was stronger than he’d ever imagined, it wasn’t easy to connect to her mind like it had been with any other being he’d tried this with, she was fighting him and he could feel their minds wrestling for dominance over the other, but in a flash of inspiration Ryan stopped trying to control her mind and simply fought for a stalemate, every move she made he countered and blocked her, this frustrated the queen and she tried harder but it was in vain as his mind was too difficult to penetrate, eventually she quit trying and Ryan was able to slip his mind into hers and he felt the two entwine, like lovers melding together for the first time and her emotions slipped into his mind.

Much to his surprise the first thing he felt was not the dark evil that he’d been expecting, but it was fear, raw powerful fear and a drive to survive, he saw her memories and her capture at the hands of a hunting party as they’d destroyed her hive, he felt her pain as her daughters and sons were mown down without mercy, he felt her anger at her imprisonment, but the emotion that stood out the most for him was the fear, fear of the unknown and what was happening to her, he’d never believed in a million years that a creature like this would be capable of feeling fear, but also he felt her intelligence, he’d always believed that these creatures ran on a dark version of instinct, but how very wrong he was, in that same moment she’d been able to see his memories and had seen the entirety of his life and also now knew and understood why he was fighting, in that moment a bond and connection was formed between them and he heard a rather feminine voice in his head, “I see you now young one” it said.

The queen reached around and gripped him in her strong claws but rather than harm him she placed him down on his unsteady legs in front of her, his resources were all but depleted now thanks to having to use every bit of energy left to him to establish a connection to the queen’s powerful mind, she was now staring right at him her face only inches from his, “You are not like your kin” she said inside his head, 

“No I’m different from them, but you also are not what I imagined” he replied rather wearily, 

“You saw what you were taught to see” she replied, this made sense to him as his perceptions of these creatures had come from the stories he’d heard and from his battles with them on the field,

“Isn’t that true of all of us?” he replied, she seemed to nod at this,

“But we both wish to be free of this place and to live free” she said, Ryan nodded, 

“Then our goals are the same” she said slowly, 

“They wish me to kill you to prove my strength” Ryan said, as they were speaking there was a howl of pain from his left, he turned to look and as he did he felt stabs of pain through his torso, his Vexor lizard had been killed by the other two queens while he’d been conversing with this one, he felt his companion’s pain as if it was his own and his dropped him to his knees as he hugged himself as he felt the life leave his companions body, a feeling of cold dread washed over him in waves, after they were done with the mighty lizard the two queens turned their attentions to the stricken boy, 

“As my sisters wish to kill you for what your kind has done to us and our kin” the other queen said in a rather calm voice, Ryan felt the panic rising within him, he had no strength left to fight them now, he’d played his last Ace on a gamble here, but had he struck out?

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The bars that separated the main arena floor from the cell area proved no challenge for Tik’s dual plasma casters and they exploded outwards with two well placed shots, they were well beyond the need for stealth now, the blast tore a rather sizeable hole in the separating wall which she and her two companions charged through with reckless abandon, the sight that met her filled her with dread, her son was there wounded and bleeding on his knees before three kiande amedha queens, Tik roared in primal rage and charged the nearest queen at full tilt, from both her left and right she heard two answering roars from both Shena Black Crest and from Fen Ra Sharna as they both charged the other two, but just as she was raising her blades to strike at the queen something appeared directly in front of her blade and it took all of her strength to stop her downward swing from striking her now standing son.

“No!!! Stop!!!” Ryan yelled as to his surprise he saw his Matriarch charging at the queen, using everything he had left he sprang to his feet and dashed forwards, he put himself in between the two charging groups and held up his hands to stop them, as he did he felt something like a bubble burst inside him and he was suddenly filled with an energy that he’d never felt before.

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From the highest stand a watching Paya smiled to herself and she turned to her two companions, one was a young man dressed in simple clothes carrying a harp by the name of Angus Og and another in a long hooded black cloak, carrying a both a staff in his hand and a sword under the cloak by the name of Gwydion.

“It begins” she said smiling at her two companions,

“He’s awakening” Gwydion said looking at the young boy standing between the two groups, 

“Hopefully you haven’t chosen unwisely here Paya” Angus Og said regarding the young boy with a curious eye, 

“Search your heart Angus you see his strength as I do, this young Hybrid Dream Warrior and his Human father are the keys to both their salvations, without them both races and many more are doomed when the Creeping Blackness comes” Paya said,

“Damn Loki what in all the heavens was he thinking when he released that nightmare into the mortal realm” Gwydion said kicking a stone at his feet angrily, 

“You know what he’s like, totally hates mortals and our dependence on them, I think in his twisted mind he wants to prove that we don’t need them and to try and take the universe back to the way it was in the beginning” Angus Og said glancing at his old friend,

“Well whatever his reasons, it’s up to us to stop it, come now I have another to visit” Paya said, both her companions nodded and all three of them turned and walked into a dust cloud that swept them away as if they’d never been there.

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“Ryan move out of the way they’ll kill you!!” Tik eleth growled at her son as he blocked her strike on the kiande amedha queen, but her son didn’t move he stood firm, oddly the queen’s didn’t move either, they didn’t attack either him or them, they simply stood there hissing angrily, swishing their tails from left to right as they faced down they group of Yaujta that had charged in, but for some reason they refused to move past her son, Ryan turned to look at her and to her utter shock his purple eyes appeared to be glowing, 

“No, they won’t” he said simply, his voice sounded different, broken to the point of utter exhaustion but at the same time containing a strength and determination that reminded her of only one other, her beloved Ack.

Ryan turned to face the queen’s and he reached up and held out his hand to the queen nearest him, it was at that point Tik noticed a purple energy pulsing through his veins making them all stand out from his skin, the queen regarded him with a suspicious glance but then she lowered her head and allowed his hand to be placed on her skin, the area where he touched lit up with a purple glow, then he turned to face her and offered his other hand out, Tik didn’t know what the pauk was going on here, but she knew one thing, she trusted her son and he was a Dream Warrior like her beloved life mate, so she decided to trust his judgement, slowly and cautiously she stepped forwards till she was right next to him, she couldn’t believe she was this close to a kiande amedha queen without it striking her, it was an absolute miracle, but for some reason the beast trusted and responded to her son, so what sort of mother would she be if she didn’t trust his judgement, she bowed her head and Ryan placed his hand to the side of her head, instantly she felt a buzzing in her skull, it wasn’t painful but it was strange, “Now see each other and know each other” he said and in a flash Tik’s mind was filled with the thoughts and feelings of the queen and vice versa the queen’s mighty mind was filled with the images of Tik’s life, as the connection was established bright purple light shot from both the queen to her two sisters and joined them into the link, the same happened from Tik to both Shena Black Crest and Fen Ra Sharna, suddenly the whole group was overwhelmed with a collective consciousness, their entire collected experiences both good and bad shared among each other as if each of them had lived many different lives.

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In his box high above the arena the clan leader couldn’t believe his eyes, not only had three intruders burst in and tried to stop the trial, but now the young Dream Warrior hybrid who up until this point looked like he was about to fall to the queens was doing some sort of Dream Warrior magic and had joined the whole group together with some sort of purple light with him at its center, as he watched the boy glowed like he was made entirely of light, he’d heard of the might of Dream Warriors but he’d never imagined that not only could they stop a kiande amedha queen in her tracks, but by the looks of it control them, this could get very bad very fast if he turned those beasts on them, it was time to put a stop to this, he signaled to his personal guards and they responded.

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Ryan felt an amazing range of emotions flowing through him like a living network as all of the now joined group shared thoughts, emotions and experiences, it was like being in a bubble filled with happiness, love, joy but then at the same time horror, fear and pain, it was an incredible experience that no words could really give credit to, the one that really touched his heart the most was the mutual understanding that he felt coming from all sides now, the Yaujta understanding the Xenomorphs and vice versa, but then a sense of danger that was coming from the queens caused him to sever the link and return everyone to normal.

As the link was severed they all looked around in surprise, Tik was amazed beyond words at what she’d just experienced, she’d never imagined in a million life times that the kiande amedha queens would have emotions like that, but then Ryan cut the link and she was alone in her head again, blinking a few times to clear her head and re-orientate herself she glanced at her son, she knew why he’d severed the link because as he’d felt it so had she, a sense of danger coming from one of the queens as they’d sensed something. 

Shena Black Crest shook her head to clear it, then she turned and upon seeing the male she loved standing there tall and proud she ran to his side, as she reached him he smiled at her, “I knew you’d come” he said, without saying a word she threw her arms around him and held him against her, she’d longed for this for what had felt like a life time, to feel his body against hers and to feel his warmth again, she swore that no matter what happened from this point she would never leave his side ever again, live or die here, she would do it at his side where she belonged. 

As she did there was a roar of rage from the stands that both she and Ryan recognized, it was Shena’s father, “Take your hands off her you filthy half breed scum!!” he roared, this was met by a far more fierce roar from Tik, hers was so loud it echoed from the walls and seemed to almost shake the entire arena’s very foundations, 

“How dare you call my beloved son scum you pauking coward, come down here and face me!!!” she roared in a voice so fierce that it struck fear into even the hearts of the battle hardened warriors present, Ryan and Shena looked at each other and instantly as she saw his eyes she knew that he had a purpose here, she nodded and he disengaged from her hug and walked over to his raging Matriarch, he placed a hand on her massive arm and she glanced down at him, he smiled at her drawing his mandibles up and showing his warriors teeth in exactly the same way that his father did, it was enough to calm her, then he stepped forwards away from her and turned to face the crowd, 

“You call me scum, you call me a filthy half breed but yet here I stand having taken all of your trials and having passed them, I have fought everything you have thrown at me despite the fact that you stacked the odds to try and make it impossible for me to win, what warrior here can say that they would have stood a chance against one let alone three of these beautiful and magnificent creatures in single combat?” he said in a loud proud voice as he swept his hand to gesture to the three kiande amedha queens who had moved to surround him in a protective circle like bodyguards protecting their charge, but anyone could see that this boys words were touching them as well because instead of a battle stance they now stood tall and proud at his sides,

“You say you have passed but they do not look slain to me” the clan leader said as he and his personal guard made their way down through the stands to the arena edge, 

“The rules state that I must defeat them, it does not say that I must slay them, I do not wish to slay them and they feel the same about me and given that they entered the arena with every intention of killing me and here I am still standing I would interpret that to mean I have a victory” Ryan said calmly, one of the queens hissed at the clan leader angrily, Ryan reached up and placed a hand on her flank, she glanced down at the young Dream Warrior stood at her side and she nodded at him, there was loud chatter among those gathered in the stands, surprisingly it seemed that the majority of the crowd seemed to agree with Ryan, 

“Then there’s the matter of the unforgivable interruption of the trial by these others” the clan leader said, this was followed by a chorus from the crowd who agreed with him, 

“They never landed a blow on a single opponent that was mine to face, so other than making a very dramatic entrance into the arena they neither changed the outcome nor fought any opponent meant for me, so the outcome was the same” Ryan said, this was met by murmurs of agreement from those in the crowd in agreement with the young Dream Warrior, suddenly the clan leader felt nervous that so many of those gathered here seemed to be in agreement with the young half breed, 

“Well there is still one more trial for you to face young one, if the patriarch of the Black Crest family wishes he may face you in single combat and if any of your companions so much as flinch in your direction I will find you in breach of the trial and declare your guilt” he said in a smug voice, Ryan could hear both Shena and his Matriarch angrily clicking their mandibles from behind him, 

“Very well I accept those terms, my companions here will not interfere, if he wishes to face me, it will be in single fair combat” Ryan said, he felt all of his companions staring at his back, the clan leader turned to the Patriarch of the Black Crest family, 

“What say you? Will you face him?” he asked, there was a roar from the crowd, 

“I will and I will destroy him for defiling my daughter with his filth!!” he replied, this nearly triggered Tik off again till she saw her son’s eyes and she instantly recognized that look, it was the very same look that her beloved Ack had when he had a plan, but he couldn’t stop the anger of Shena, she raced forwards and addressed the entire crowd,

“Who the Pauk do you think you are!! You call the male I love with my entire heart and soul filth, well then that means that I am filth too and I’d rather be filth than whatever you proclaim to be, his clan is the most honorable and strongest I have ever met, they accepted me without any judgment despite the fact that you would exile me for simply loving, well I have laid my heart claim to this beautiful male and his clan Matriarch has accepted it, I don’t care if he’s half ooman or even if he was fully ooman, he is the strongest most beautiful male that I have had the honor to lay eyes on, he has treated me with nothing but love, respect and honor, he has displayed more of the values that you claim to uphold than any of you gathered here and yet you have the audacity to put him on trial for merely existing, I don’t care what he is my heart simply cares who he is and I will happily stand, live and die at his side as I know he would at mine” she roared, then she turned directly to face her father in the crowd, “I am not one of your pauking trophies to be hung on a pauking wall, I am flesh and blood and my heart wants what it wants and I don’t give a pauk what you think of me or him, I love him and I won’t let you or anyone else tell me that it’s wrong, I renounce your bigoted name and your close minded ideals, I am now and forever from this point Shena of the proud clan Mason!!!” she roared in a voice that put Tik’s battle cry to shame, Ryan walked over to her and placed a supporting hand on her shoulder pauldron, she turned to face him before tearing her mask from her face and pulling him into a passion filled kiss that caused quite a stir among those gathered, some roared in anger at this spectacle while much to the surprise of a few, more of those gathered roared in support of the two young lovers, as they parted Ryan smiled at her and he saw the love and fire in her eyes, “Kick his arse my love” she said with a dark smile, he nodded and turned to face the clan leader again, as he did Tik eleth came over and placed a proud hand on the young girl’s shoulder and nodded approvingly of her display of defiance and love in the face of everyone here, 

“You do our clan proud daughter” she said and Shena simply smiled at her clan Matriarch, the clan leader banged his fist on the rails to get everyone’s attention because the spectacle had caused quite an uproar amongst those gathered,

“Very well, the rest of your companions will step down and this will be a fair fight, single combat in the oldest of Yaujta tradition” the clan leader yelled and the crowd roared in agreement, Ryan nodded to his group and they all begrudgingly retreated to the edges of the arena, it was quite a spectacle watching three Yaujta warriors and three kiande amedha queens walking together like they were old comrades in arms, then as he turned Ryan saw that Shena’s father had entered the arena and was standing facing him, his ceremonial armor shone under the lights, 

“I am going to destroy you and hang your head on my trophy wall scum” he growled, 

“Well either that or I am going to destroy your reality” Ryan replied, this angered the elder Yaujta male and with an angry roar which Ryan echoed they charged each other swords drawn high.


	41. Eye of the Storm

Jack stood by the large statue in the middle of the village as he watched his daughter being led by the hand by a young black girl towards a hut on the edge of the village, he had to laugh as he saw the innocent little white cat riding along in his daughter’s dreadlocks like they were some sort of hammock.

He couldn’t help but feel worried when she’d gone out into the village on her own, so he’d discreetly followed her to see what was going on, it wasn’t that he doubted her ability to defend herself, hell she could probably out do just about anyone her in single combat thanks to her extensive training, but a father’s instincts don’t just switch off like that, but now he could see she was fine and apparently in good company he relaxed a little.

“She’s very beautiful and it’s obvious that you’d do anything to protect her” a very feminine voice said from behind Jack suddenly, he turned and to his surprise he found himself face to face with a rather beautiful Yaujta female, before he could say anything to voice his surprise at her presence she continued to speak, “You’re a good father and a good man Jack, Tik eleth is a very lucky woman to have you at her side” the young woman said, Jack had noticed the grey smoke swirling around her which meant that she was a spirit, but she was unlike any spirit he had encountered before, there was an aura of power around her but at the same time a purity of sorts that seemed to radiate from her, she turned and looked up at the massive statue and that when it clicked in Jack’s head, the woman and the statue looked identical, the young woman before him was Paya the goddess of the hunt.

As the realization registered on his face and his mouth dropped open Paya moved from the statue to his side, the smile never left her face, “I see that you’ve figured out who I am you always were a perceptive one” she said smiling, 

“Well I can’t say that I’m not surprised but I guess I shouldn’t be with what I’ve learned since becoming a Dream Warrior, but I can’t help but wonder why a Yaujta Goddess would want to visit me” Jack said, this simply caused Paya to smile even broader,

“Simple because of how important you are to me” she said, Jack frowned slightly, 

“Important how?” he asked curiously, Paya smiled but seemed to ignore the question, instead she walked back over to the statue and ran her hand over it, 

“Ahh I remember the days that this planet used to hold such glorious and pure hunts, a place for young warriors to test themselves against the most powerful beasts in the universe, but back then they respected the balance, they respected the harmony of life, but then the bad bloods came and the wars began, so much death and so much hate, it changed the Yaujta in a way that now needs to be undone before it’s too late” Paya said, then she turned to face Jack and to her surprise found him directly at her side, before she could speak Jack raised a hand and placed it to the side of her face, 

“I don’t do cryptic and I don’t like riddles, if you’re here that means you have a purpose for me and I don’t like being a puppet on a string especially when my family is at risk, so let’s see if this works on you” he said and before Paya could say a word she saw his eyes change to bright white and his veins began to glow with pure white light, she grinned darkly, 

“You’re a bold one aren’t you?” she said as she felt the human Dream Warrior trying to penetrate her mind, he returned her grin, 

“Have you met my wife?” he said, this made her laugh, it was a high pitched noise like music, 

“Very well Jack the Bold, let’s see if you can handle the mind of a Goddess, it’ll serve my purpose anyhow” she said and with that she allowed his mind in and their consciousness’s joined as one.

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The inside of the hut was gloomy except for a few burning candles over in the far corner, it was pretty sparkly decorated with a few furs from some of the animals here thrown around as rugs and bedding, it actually looked like a cozy little home to Sela’s eyes as she looked around herself, then she noticed the two beds over by the far wall, one was occupied right now and her eyes locked onto the shape of Robert laid on his bed with his head propped up with some sort of fur pillows and some sort of large vellum pad in front of him.

Sela noticed that he seemed to have some sort of sharpened sticks and rocks around him and a small knife that she guessed that he used for sharpening them next to him, at first she thought maybe he was writing some sort of diary like her Matriarch had done when she lived here, that was until she noticed the vellum pieces stuck up around the walls of the hut, in the gloom they had been hard to spot at first but as her eyes adjusted she could see them more clearly now, they were sketches and drawings done in charcoal and graphite and they were exquisite.

Sela’s eyes locked onto one near to her and it appeared to be a young ooman woman with long wavy hair and kind happy eyes, she was smiling and Sela couldn’t help but wonder if this was Roberts mother, “Why do you always have to have it so dark in here Robert? It makes it hard to see anything!” Amy said in an exasperated tone and she stumbled across the room towards the window, Sela heard him sigh heavily, 

“If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a million times, it helps me to focus and it helps me with the shading” he said in a deeper voice than Sela had expected, in fact she realized that this was the first time she’d ever heard him speak, Amy pushed the window open with a loud creak and light flooded the room, instantly Robert shielded his eyes from the brightness, “Ahhh Amy what the hell!!” he said sitting bolt upright on his bed to look at the little girl, but instead his eyes were drawn to something else entirely, Sela eleth.

Amy noticed Robert staring at Sela and he was Boo seemed to choose that moment to abandon his living hammock and wrestled his way up her dreadlocks and onto her shoulder as she stood there nervously wringing her hands together, she also noticed a range of emotions passing over Roberts face, everything from confusion at finding the alien girl here in his room, to anger at seeing her, then amusement at seeing her little white cat trying his best to climb up Sela’s dreadlocks and onto her shoulder without falling off, then back to anger.

“What’s she doing here!?” Robert asked the anger in his voice obvious, this felt like a punch to Sela’s heart, it was obvious that the merest sight of her filled him with anger, but she took a deep breath as she remembered what her Matriarch had once said to her, that people would be both shocked and mistrustful of them because of what they were, but for her to rise above it and to prove her worth and show them how wrong they were, so instead of running away to die in a hole like every fiber of her being wanted her to do she stood her ground, 

“I brought her here because she’s my friend” Amy said with an angry edge in her voice, in fact it was enough to tear Robert’s eyes from Sela and move them onto the young girl, 

“Friend? How can you be friends with that thing!?” Robert asked angrily, this one got Sela’s blood boiling, but before she could spit a reply Amy got there first, 

“She is not a thing she is a person like you or me Robert!!!” Amy roared in a voice that stunned everyone present including the little white cat currently on Sela’s shoulder who was now regarding his owner with an opened mouth expression.

The sheer force of the little girl’s anger seemed to shock guilt out of Robert, “Amy…..” he began before being cut off by the feisty young girl, 

“No! you don’t get to speak to me until you apologize to Sela eleth, she came here because I asked her to, so she could show you that her kind are not all bad” Amy said, this seemed to flick Robert’s switch back from guilt to anger again, 

“How can you say that Amy!? You know what their kind did! To me, to you, to my parents……..” he said before his voice trailed off into a very dark place that pulled Sela’s heart stings like a harp, she instantly wanted to run over and throw her arms around the young teen and to tell him it was all going to be all ok, but she knew when to not get involved and she could see that this was one of those time and besides she didn’t think that particular course of action would get a positive reaction here, but then the young girl pulled out what could only be described as a miracle out of the prodigal head of hers.

“I know what they did Robert just as well as you, they killed my friends too remember? But that wasn’t Sela eleth that did that was it?” Amy said, Robert remained silent but his look was curious, “My mom told me a long time ago that white people like you used to use black people like me as slaves, they used to force us to work for them and to rape and kill us just because they could, but then things changed and got better and now white people are friends, allies and equals, I mean look at us Robert, you’re my best friend and you look after me and take care of me and your white and I’m black” she said, Robert looked stunned at this little pearl of wisdom but then his mind seemed determined to fight against it, 

“That’s different!” he exclaimed, 

“How?” Amy asked folding her arms across her little chest, 

“We’re both human!” Robert said, 

“So? What does that have to do with anything? Not so long ago white people didn’t think that Black people were human” Amy said angrily, Robert didn’t say anything he simply looked stunned, but Amy wasn’t done yet, “Just because she’s different from us doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have feelings Robert and that doesn’t give you the right to stamp all over them and hurt her, oh and for your information she’s half human too” Amy said with a dark smile which told Sela she’d pulled her trump card, Robert’s face showed a look of complete shock and amazement as it flicked between both Sela and Amy rapidly, but before he was able to gather his thoughts Amy pushed her advantage, “Yeah you remember that powerful looking dude in the white armor?” she asked, he nodded silently with wide shocked looking eyes, “Yeah that was her daddy” Amy said, Robert turned his gaze to Sela and she could see the unspoken question in them asking her if it was true, 

“Yeah it’s true, that’s my father” she said in a quiet voice, he opened his mouth to speak but Amy got there first again, 

“So you see Robert she’s not that different from us and even if she was what difference does that make? Sela eleth is a strong, kind and gentle person, she even saved Boo when he ran off again and brought him back to me, look he loves her to bits and he’s a better judge of character than any of us” she said pointing at the little white cat riding on Sela’s shoulder who decided that it was the perfect time to nuzzle the side of Sela’s mandibles which caused her out of reflex to scratch him behind the ears and causing him to purr loudly, Robert watched this and the look in his eyes made Sela think that his young friend’s words and the actions of this little white cat this had just destroyed his version of reality rather completely, “So you say sorry to her and we can all be friends, otherwise I’m not going to talk to you again and I might just go and live with her because I don’t want to be friends with someone who would be so hurtful to someone who hasn’t done anything wrong, just because of what they look like” Amy said in a voice that made her sound so much older than her years, but Sela could see that last little shot had really hit home, Roberts eyes now showed a pain like no other hidden there, it was obvious that he needed Amy like she needed him, then he turned and looked directly at Sela eleth, she could see the pain in his eyes but there was something else there too, 

“I’m sorry for what I said Sela eleth, you aren’t a thing and I had no right to say that to you and I’m sorry for it” he said with what sounded like a bucket load of pain in his voice, Sela eleth’s anger faded away in an instant, 

“It’s ok, I know that the Yaujta have caused you a lot of pain and for that I’m sorry, but you have to understand that those that did those terrible things to you and your family do not represent the Yaujta as a whole, they’re criminal scum who don’t care what pain they inflict as long as they get their sick thrills” Sela said, Robert looked at her curiously, 

“It might shock you to learn that I was brought here to be hunted to, I was torn from my family home and dumped here so that I could be hunted and killed just so that their clan leader could hurt my parents” Sela said in a sad sounding voice as she thought about how that sort of pain would have felt, it occurred to her that the small glimpse she just got from that wasn’t even close to the pain that was Robert’s reality, he looked both shocked and surprised at this, 

“Wait so they hunt and kill their own kind!?” he exclaimed, Sela nodded, 

“Yeah, my Matriarch was torn from her family and dumped here to be hunted, but she fought them off on her own for a number of years till she met my father when they did the same to him and together they were able to escape” Sela explained, Robert looked curious,

“Matriarch?” he asked, Sela eleth smiled at him not understanding the term, 

“It’s a respectful term for my mother” she said, he looked rather thoughtful for a moment, 

“So your mother was stuck on her own on this planet for years?” he asked, she nodded, “I can’t even imagine what that must have been like, I’d have lost my mind long ago if it wasn’t for Amy and Boo and everyone here” Robert said thoughtfully, 

“Though she’d never admit it I really think my Matriarch was far from losing hers if you listen closely to the way she tells the story and she’s a strong proud Yaujta huntress” Sela said,

“I can imagine, I was terrified when they turned me loose on this place after they killed my family, I don’t know why they spared me but sometimes I wish they hadn’t” Robert said in a pain filled voice that made Sela want to rush over and hug him, but she figured a reaction like that might scare him even more, he really wasn’t used to being this near to a Yaujta, so getting a hug from one might break his mind.

A sudden boldness came over Sela eleth and she decided to act on it, she walked over to the foot of Robert’s bed and stood looking down at him, as he looked up at the young proud half Yaujta huntress she could see the mixture of fear and curiosity in his eyes, “May I sit?” she asked pointing at the end of his bed, he looked at where her hand indicating and took a deep breath, but then he nodded and she smiled at him and sat down on the end of his bed facing him as he drew up his legs out of the way, as she sat down Boo the cat jumped down from her shoulder and jumped straight onto Robert throwing himself into the young teen’s arms knocking the pad out of the way as he did, “Hey you silly cat!” Robert said to the little purring white cat as he rubbed him behind his ears, Sela leaned down and picked up the pad to return it to Robert but as she did she noticed what he’d been drawing on it, it was a picture of Amy and Boo playing by the statue in the center of the village, “Hey this is really good you are a fantastic artist” Sela said as she began to flick through the pad, Robert looked really bashful at her praise, 

“I like to capture my memories as I see them in my head, that way if they got me then there’d be at least a little part of me left in this world unlike my family” he said in a sad voice, Sela looked up at him, 

“There is a little part of them left too you know” she said, he looked at her curiously, 

“You” she said, a smile broke slowly across his face as if the thought had never occurred to him, “And while you still live they’ll never be forgotten and they can live on in you” Sela said, Robert now full on smiled, 

“Thank you Sela” he said as tears started to flow down his cheeks, then a sudden thought struck her and she nearly slapped herself for not realizing it before, in a burst of activity she jumped to her feet and without realizing her actions reached down and grabbed Roberts hand, his eyes widened in fear as his instincts kicked in, but rather than harm him she pulled him off the bed and to his feet but she kept hold of one of his hands which made him look at her wild eyed, “Come with me, there’s someone you need to meet, I think he’ll be able to help” she said, 

“What why?” Robert asked without realizing that he and Sela were still holding hands as she led him abruptly across the hut past a rather confused but happy looking Amy, 

“Please just trust me” Sela said smiling at him, the confused teen looked at the powerful looking young Yaujta huntress that was leading him by the hand across the room, it suddenly struck him that he was holding hands with a girl, even if that girl was an alien, suddenly the warmth and softness of her skin entered his mind and a massive blush crossed his face, as his face was turning bright red he got eye to eye with Amy who smiled broadly at him and winked, what the hell was this feeling and how the hell was this happening?

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Jack’s mind felt like it was going to break apart and shatter like a glass hitting concrete at high speed, it was taking all of his strength to hold himself together, but then he broke through and he saw it, the universe in its entirety.

He was floating in blackness but he was surrounded by light, stars and planets, galaxies and solar systems all around him and he could feel the life pulsing from every direction all around him, it was like the warm glow of a sunrise on his skin after a cold night, but more than that he could feel the minds and hearts of uncountable living beings of races he didn’t even know the names of from every direction passing through him like a highway, “It’s really something isn’t it?” a voice from behind him said, he turned slowly and saw Paya floating there with him,

“It’s incredible” he said, she smiled broadly, 

“I was going to ask you if you liked what you saw but Goddess or not I think your wife would probably hunt me down if I did” she said causing Jack to burst out laughing, 

“You know her well then” he said smiling, 

“Would you like to see her?” Paya asked, Jack raised an eyebrow, 

“What really?” he asked, she smiled again,

“You’re in the mind of a goddess Jack a feat that no other mortal has ever accomplished I might add so color me impressed here and yes really, just reach out with your feelings for her” she replied, Jack thought about this for a second and instantly his head was filled with images of the woman he loved, there was a sudden rush of color as the universe around them seemed to move and respond to the request, the whole thing turned to a rush of color and he found himself standing in a massive arena, to his right was the woman he loved looking every bit the radiant proud Yaujta huntress that he adored, but suddenly he sensed her feelings and he felt a mixture of rage, fear and pride all rolled together, that’s when he noticed both Shena Black Crest and a male Yaujta stood with her along to his utter surprise three Xenomorph queens, they all appeared to be watching something in the arena so he turned to look as well and that’s when he saw his son Ryan stood there tall and proud holding two swords while a large Yaujta male circled him, suddenly he became aware of Paya stood directly next to him and she placed a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry Jack that boy of yours is as strong as they come and he’d already started something here, something that needed to happen in order to save both her species and yours” she said pointing at Tik and then at him, 

“What do you mean?” he asked,

“Reach out and touch the feelings of the crowd with your mind, see them and feel them” she said, Jack looked confused at this but he did as she asked, a massive surge of emotions suddenly entered his head, it took him quite a bit of effort to focus them and apply them to an individual, the majority of the crowd seemed to be in total support of his son and what he stood for, he could feel the conflicted emotions of various individuals around the arena as they battled with themselves over what they were feeling, quite a few of the females in the crowd were feeling feelings of attraction towards his son and jealously towards Shena Black Crest, but at least half were considering their own beliefs very carefully, they were stuck in emotional battles in their own heads, all their lives they’d been told that humans were a weak prey species and were good for nothing but hunting, but here stood a male born of a human male and a Yaujta female who embodied the core values of Yaujta society as well as throwing in human values into the mix, never in a million years would have they considered that a union between their species could produce an offspring that was not only so strong but was so radiant, quite a few of the crowd were considering going hunting for a human mate of their own.

Jack turned to Paya with a raised eyebrow, “It looks like Ryan has started some sort of Yaujta love revolution” he said, she grinned broadly and gave a musical laugh, 

“Exactly” she said, Jack tilted his head curiously, 

“You see there are events at work in the universe that have been set in motion to unravel the very mortal world as we know it, two species will have the strength to stand up and face it together and this evil knows this, so it has targeted both species and has instilled strong feelings of xenophobia and mistrust in both, this all to prevent an alliance and more importantly interbreeding between the two because it will be the hybrids like your son that will be on the front lines, shining beacons of how two proud and strong species are not only strong alone but so much stronger when their together” she said, Jack considered this very slowly and a realization hit him suddenly, 

“So my being a Dream Warrior and meeting Tik on that planet was no accident was it?” he asked, Paya smiled sweetly, 

“Nope, I have searched for one of your kind so very long Jack, a perfect human Dream Warrior with an open mind who would see the beauty of the Yaujta and I found you, so I made sure that you were one of the ones that the bad bloods took to that planet where you met your beloved Tik” she said, Jack laughed softly, 

“So I guess I should thank you for bringing me together with the other half of my heart” he said which caused Paya’s smile to broaden, 

“You’re are most welcome Jack and really it should be me thanking you, you and Tik are going to be directly responsible for saving the universe” she said, this caused Jack to laugh out loud again, 

“Sounds like a hell of a day doesn’t it? Got up this morning, went out to the shop, got lost and met a pretty alien girl had a couple of kids, then ended up saving the universe” Jack said causing Paya to laugh, 

“Well it’s true, you and Tik’s love for one another was the catalyst that set all of this in motion, so you could very well say that love saved the universe now couldn’t you?” she said with a sly smile, then she turned to Jack to face her, “Well now we have to go back as I feel that your daughter needs your help with her own love issues, but before we go I have two gifts for you” Paya said, Jack raised an eye brow,

“Love issues?” he asked, Paya winked at him,   
“You’ll see” she said, then she reached forwards and placed her hand on his chest directly over his heart, 

“Jack Mason I bestow upon you the gift of a Yaujta life span, may it serve you well and now for the biggest gift, I awaken you, go forth Dream Warrior” Paya said and with that Jack felt power rushing through him like he’d never imagined, his entire being filled with a bright light and he felt his mind explode.

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As Sela eleth dragged Robert from the hut and across the village towards the hut where her and her father had been set up she noticed something strange, over by the big Paya statue in the middle of the village she saw a bright light, both Robert and Amy who was following along with Boo all turned to look as well, just in time to see her father floating in the air glowing.

“Hey Sela isn’t that your daddy?” Amy said pointing, at that moment he stopped glowing and dropped back to his feet, forgetting that she was still holding his hand Sela nearly pulled Robert off his feet as she charged towards her father at full tilt, it was all he could do to keep up with the young huntress, but as they ran something strange happened, he happened to look at the side of Sela’s face just as one of the god rays of light hit the other side of her head, it framed her in an aura of golden light that seemed to make her skin radiant, the brown and green swirls across her body seemed to light up of their own accord it also seemed to make her piercing blue eyes seem to glow, he watched as her massive dreadlocks swung and bounced around her head and back as they ran and he felt his mouth fall open as he truly saw her for the for the first time, she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

The trio stopped right in front of Sela’s father Jack and he turned to look at them, the first thing Sela noticed was that his eyes were different, they weren’t only blue anymore, they were blue with specks of bright gold flecked throughout, the next thing she noticed were the two ice white lightning bolt shaped streaks in his hair, “Father what happened!?” Sela exclaimed as she instantly reached up and inspected his changed hair with her free hand, 

“You ever wonder what it’d be like to meet god?” he replied, she looked at him curiously, “Yeah well I can cross that one off the list, I just met Paya” he said, his daughter’s mandibles dropped open in shock, 

“You met the goddess of the hunt!?” she exclaimed in a shocked confused voice, he nodded, 

“Yeah nice lady actually” he said smiling, 

“Nice lady!! You meet a goddess and all you can say is nice lady?” Sela exclaimed with wide eye, at that moment Jack noticed that she had others with her and he also noticed that she seemed to be holding hands with a teenage boy who was looking at him with a look of total amazement painted on his face, Jack’s eyes flicked between them both and then a large grin spread across his face, 

“So that’s what Paya was talking about” he said softly, Sela was confused what he was looking at for a second till she realized that she was still holding Robert’s hand tightly, but just before she released it she also noticed how tightly he was holding onto hers, as she did rather begrudgingly release it a blush spread across her face right down to the tips of her mandibles, a blush that Jack noticed the boy was sharing and he couldn’t help laughing at this till his daughter shot him a death glare, 

“So what did Paya say?” Sela asked quickly moving away from what her father seemed to have noticed, he always had been rather observant and she knew he could read her like a book even without the Dream Warrior abilities, it was rather infuriating sometimes.

Jack turned and looked into his daughter’s rather embarrassed eyes, “It seems we have rather a bigger part to play here than we originally intended, there’s something happening in the universe and it seems that only the Yaujta and human race can stop it and it’s up to us to get them together to fight it” he said, Sela eleth cocked her head curiously and he detected both curiosity and worry in her eyes, 

“What sort of thing?” she asked, Jack shrugged, 

“She wasn’t that forth coming, but what she did say is that only by bringing the Yaujta and human races together as one is the only way to stop it, I also saw Ryan and your mother” he said, that instantly snapped Sela’s head up, 

“What!? You saw them? How are they? Are they ok?” she asked in rapid succession, 

“Far better than I could have ever imagined actually, according to Paya Ryan is starting some sort of love revolution aboard your mother’s clan ship, apparently by showing them his strength in combat he has changed rather a lot of minds as to the value and strength of humans as a race, apparently rather a few of your mother’s old clan are giving serious consideration to walking your mother’s path and taking a human for a mate after what he’s done there, but not only that he somehow managed to form some sort of alliance with the kiande amedha” Jack said, Sela felt a relief wash over her at the news that her beloved twin was ok but that last part really shocked her, 

“Friends with the kiande amedha!?” she asked in a shocked voice, her father nodded, 

“Yeah I know caught me off guard too, I saw your mother, Shena Black Crest and some guy I didn’t recognize at the edge of some sort of arena and they were stood side by side with three queens” Jack said the surprise evident in his own voice as he gave voice to what he’d seen.

The entire time this little exchange had been going on both Robert and Amy had been standing as silent as door mice listening to all this, but both of them were rather confused by what they were hearing, it didn’t make any sense to either of them, suddenly Jack focused on them and he smiled, “I see you found who our little friend belonged to” he said indicating Boo who had climbed up on Amy’s shoulder and looked like he was sizing up jumping onto Sela’s back, he walked over to Amy and gently stroked the happy little cat who responded with a happy purr, 

“Yeah” Sela said lost in thought at what her father had just told her about what was happening with her brother, suddenly Robert decided to speak up, 

“Ummm sir?” he said in a quiet almost shy voice trying to attract Jack’s attention, he turned to look at the young teen who seemed to shrink a little under his gaze although he tried his best to look friendly, he guessed he could look kinda intimidating under all this armor and weaponry, “I was wondering how did you see them exactly and what was that with all the glowing when we first arrived?” he asked, Jack smiled at him warmly, 

“Yeah I guess all this could be confusing to you guys” he said still smiling, this seemed to embolden the young teen a little, he returned Jack’s smile,

“Yeah somewhat” he said, 

“I’m what the Yaujta call a Dream Warrior” Jack said, 

“A Dream Warrior? What’s that?” Robert asked,

“It’s kinda hard to explain but in a nut shell I have certain special abilities that give me quite an edge in a fight while at the same time I can see the unseen, things like spirits and the darkest secrets that people don’t want others to know” Jack replied, these words seemed to snap Sela eleth out of her trance and she quickly walked up to her father’s side, 

“Spirits?” Robert said sounding even more confused, 

“Yeah of the dead” Jack replied,

“It’s said that Dream Warriors have a foot in between worlds, half in the living half in the spirit” Sela said, Robert’s expression grew even more confused at this but also rather worried, Sela turned to her father, 

“Can I ask a favor father?” she asked, 

“Of course you can sweetheart” he said looking at her, 

“This is Robert, his parents were brutally taken from him by the bad blood pauks in a supreme act of unforgivable cowardice” she said, Jack’s gaze flicked from his beloved daughter to the young teenage boy whose expression had darkened at the mere mention of the bad bloods and what they were responsible for, Jack could see the pain and hate etched deep in his soul, it washed off him in waves, he got the feeling he knew what his daughter was about to ask of him, “I want you to help him, please father let him see them again and to be able to say his goodbyes properly” Sela said, Robert snapped out of his dark expression and looked up in utter amazement at both of them, 

“Are you serious!!?” he exclaimed in utter shock, Sela nodded, she walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder and she instantly felt him shaking in a mixture of fear and nervousness, 

“My father can help you to say the goodbye that you should have gotten to say, don’t be afraid Robert, be strong show them that you live on and honor their sacrifice and that you will avenge them” Sela said, he looked up in to the half Yaujta girl’s face and found himself instantly caught up in her bright blue eyes, they were filled with such kindness and gentleness, she seemed to radiate such a mixture of things to him, strength, compassion and kindness to name but a few, but the strongest of all of them that came stampeding out of a dark corner of his mind like an untamed powerful wild horse, was beauty.

Robert took a deep breath and steeled himself, “Ok” he said with his voice still shaking a bit, Sela smiled at the beautiful young male and squeezed his shoulder gently, then they both turned to face her father who was smiling at them both, he walked slowly up to the young teen and looked him right in the eye, the young teen’s breath caught in his throat as he saw the immense strength and power in the eyes of Sela’s father, it seemed to glow like lightning in his soul, 

“I know such a despicable act can leave its mark, it leaves a scar that never seems to leave us, a hole in your heart that never seems to be filled” Jack said softly, the teen’s breath caught again, Jack had just perfectly described how he had felt all this time, “But in the face of such darkness we can also grow strength, the strength to go on no matter the odds against us, the strength to carry on no matter what we suffer, you see Robert those we love never really leave us, they’re always with us, right here” Jack said tapping the young teen right on the heart, the young teen looked down at Jack’s hand and then up into his face, but he wasn’t looking back at him, but at something to either side of him, “They’re here, would you like to see them Robert?” Jack asked looking back to the teen’s eyes, Robert’s eyes widened and he nodded, his heart was hammering in his chest like a jack hammer, “Alright, this is going to feel quite strange at first alright?” Jack said, the teen nodded and then he felt Jack place a hand to the side on the side of his head, then in a flash his vision flickered and suddenly Jack was surrounded by a billowing pure white fire, he turned his gaze to his left and he saw that Sela eleth was surrounded by the same billowing white fire and he felt his heart skip a whole series of beats rather than just the one, she looked like a goddess, proud and beautiful surrounded by this purity given form, she was the most incredible thing he had ever seen, he couldn’t believe that these feelings had been hidden somewhere in his heart, only two hours ago he’d have happily killed her for just being one of the same race as the bastards that had done these evil things to everyone here, he’d hated her so much that he couldn’t even bear to look at her, but now he couldn’t imagine ever wanting to harm a hair on her head, then an image of running his hand over her hair and her head, feeling her soft hair and the texture of her skin while she leaned against his chest swam into his mind and filled him with a warmth, suddenly a voice in his head spoke, “Just a heads up when I’m connected to a person like this I can hear all their thoughts and their feelings” it said in a Jack’s voice, the young teen’s eyes widened in shock and fear as he looked into the eyes of her father, he’d just heard what he’d been thinking about his daughter but he didn’t look angry at all, he was smiling rather broadly, “Don’t worry I won’t tell her, I’ll leave you to do that” Jack’s voice said in his head as the Dream Warrior winked at him and Robert couldn’t help but smile, “But first I think there’s some people here who want to say hello” Jack said and with that he turned the young teen around, there standing behind him surrounded by grey smoke was his parents.

Robert’s heart felt like it had just exploded and he rushed forwards out of Jack’s grip, but much to the Dream Warrior’s surprise the connection didn’t sever, in fact it was replaced by a purple beam of light that linked the two of them, “Mom!! Dad!!” the young teen yelled as he threw himself into his mother’s waiting arms, all of them had tears streaming down their faces, Jack glanced curiously at the purple light, then he decided to try something and he focused it onto both Sela eleth and Amy and more beams shot out of him and connected them into the link, suddenly they both blinked in surprise at suddenly being able to see what was happening as well, Sela eleth looked at her father in confusion, 

“I guess Paya gave me an upgrade” he said to her telepathically, then he noticed that even Boo seemed to be joined to the link as he noticed he was feeling the little cat’s emotions as he watched the scene unfold, to Jack’s utter amazement the little cat was feeling quite a rainbow of emotions here, he was happy that his friend was able to see the ones that he loved, but he was also sad that they were dead, he was also hungry.

Sela eleth watched as Robert embraced both of his lost parents, it always amazed her that when spirits were revealed by a Dream Warrior were as real as living people, she could see the dents in Roberts clothes where they were touching him proving their existence, she could feel the tears also rolling down her cheeks as she felt his emotions flowing through the link her father had set up between them all, she glanced at Amy who was also crying at seeing this, but she could also feel the weight that was lifted from Robert’s heart at seeing them again and finding out that they were now in a place with no pain and no worries, they were currently telling him how proud they were of him for stepping up and looking after Amy when she had no-one to help her, she glanced at now from Amy to her father and she swore she saw tears in his eyes but when he noticed her looking at him he did his best to shield them from her, but she could feel his emotions through the link to and she felt the happiness he felt as well as the sadness that someone so young should have to go through this, she walked over to his side and he looked at her with a smile, without saying a word she just put her arms around him and drew herself against his broad chest and held on tight.

Jack held the link together for thirty minutes to allow Robert and his parents to say all they needed to say, when they were finished Robert’s mother approached him and Sela, she was a tall elegant looking woman with flame read hair and green eyes, she smiled at Jack broadly, “Thank you Dream Warrior for allowing me to speak to my son again, you have given me a gift worth more than my life” she said, Jack smiled back, 

“You’re very welcome” he said smiling, then she turned to Sela eleth and her smile grew even wider, 

“I see what’s in your heart young one and I beg you, please look after my son, he needs someone as strong as you to protect him” she said, Sela felt herself flush bright crimson but she nodded, then she glanced at Robert and she saw him looking right at her with exactly the same blush on his face, at that moment she felt a flash of his thoughts transfer through the link and she instantly knew that he’d gotten hers as well, both of them thought the same word at exactly the same time while looking at each other, ‘Beautiful’

With a final good bye Jack severed the link and only the living were left standing here, Sela eleth and Robert were both staring at each other in an embarrassed silence, Jack walked over and placed a hand on Amy’s shoulder, she looked up at him, “Let’s take a walk Amy, I think these two need a little time to talk” he said quietly, she nodded and as the two of them turned Boo jumped on to Jack’s cloak and clambered up on to his shoulder, he almost blended in perfectly with Jack’s armor, but as the two of them turned they both noticed they seemed to have acquired quite a crowd, apparently some of the villagers had noticed what was going on with Robert and had come to watch, word had spread quickly of the man able to contact the dead, straight away a young woman came straight up to Jack and held out a small wallet sized picture of a young man, “Please sir, will you let me see my husband again?” she asked, instantly the whole crowd of them surged forwards towards Jack, some holding photos others just shouting out names, he looked down at Amy, 

“I get the feeling I’m gonna be quite busy here” he said smiling at her, then she smiled up at him, 

“So many to help so little time” she replied causing Jack to laugh out loud, “Why not just use that purple light again?” she asked, he looked at her curiously then back at the crowd, he wondered if it was even possible for him to join this many people together at once, but it certainly would be faster, 

“You’re a genius kiddo” he said with a grin, then he turned and focused on the crowd, as he did he felt a massive surge of energy within him and it lifted him off the ground taking him and his little shoulder mounted companion high above the surprised crowd, bolts of purple light shot from him and struck various members of the crowd before chaining from them to others, in mere seconds the whole crowd were joined as one, it was like a massive hive mind of thoughts and feelings and ideas all circling together in a massive whirlwind of emotion, it was taking all of Jack’s strength and focus to maintain it but it was stable, closing his eyes he focused his mind and put out a huge call to the spirit realm, then as he opened his eyes grey swirls of smoke started to appear at the edges of the crowd and they snaked between people before forming up in front of the people they were aiming for, he heard various shouts of joy and surprise for all over as they were reunited with their lost loved ones, the sheer volume of joy and happiness that surged through Jack from the crowd nearly overwhelmed him, it was like nothing he could have imagined, as he floated high above the crowd he watched as brother was reunited with sister, mother with child, husband with wife, the dead mingled with the living and the joy flowed like water or more accurately like tears.

Robert and Sela eleth stared at each other for what felt like an eternity both totally oblivious to the min miracle that Jack was performing behind them both, they were so totally focused on each other that it was like the rest of the world was phased out, but before either of them could speak Robert’s fear took control of him again and he turned and ran, this reaction surprised Sela eleth and for a second she didn’t react but she watched him go, then a small tug at her arm brought her to her senses, she looked down and saw Amy looking up at her, “Well are going to go after him or just let him run away?” she asked, her words snapped Sela eleth back into the moment and she nodded and turned before setting off after Robert at full tilt.

Robert slammed the hut door so hard it shook the whole place, his emotions were swirling around in his head like a whirlpool, he was so confused, on one hand he couldn’t help hating the Yaujta for what they’d done to his parents and to all the others here, but he also knew that all Yaujta were not responsible for what a small group of criminals had done, then he was happy because he’d finally got to say a proper goodbye to them thanks to Jack and those amazing Dream Warrior abilities of his, then there was how fast these feelings for Sela eleth had sprung up out of the depth of his heart and this was the most confusing thing for him, he didn’t understand how he could be attracted to one of the very race that killed his parents and how had these feelings appeared so quickly? Then there was the fact he’d gotten a glimpse into her heart and found out that she shared his feelings and felt the same about him and it scared him like nothing ever had, he didn’t know what it meant or what it would lead to if he gave into them, but he couldn’t help but feel like he should be fighting against them and that they were somehow wrong and that he should be hating himself for feeling this way.

Also swirling around in his mind was the biggest question of what would he do now? After all this was over and if he survived it what would he do? If he was able to return to Earth how would he explain his parent’s disappearances? It wasn’t like the authorities would believe that he was taken to an alien planet and brutally murdered, they’d lock him up in a place for the criminally insane in the belief that he murdered them and disposed of the bodies, then what would happen to Amy and Boo? All of these questions and so many more were rampaging through his head threatening to tear his mind apart, when he’d released the tight grip he’d been holding over his emotions when Jack had shown him his parents it had opened the Pandora’s box that he’d been barely able to keep shut and now his mind was raging with all these fears and paranoias.

Suddenly the hut door opened with a massive bang and there stood Sela eleth, with the light behind her outlining her beautiful frame she looked like a powerful and beautiful Amazon warrior, she was looking right at him with concern plastered all over her face and in her eyes, oh those striking and beautiful eyes of hers, how he wished he could just drown in those beautiful pools of electric blue, “Robert?” she asked with obvious concern etched into her voice taking a step towards him, he shied backwards a step away from her, his heart was pounding as he began to look for a way out, he couldn’t let her corner him, surely these feelings couldn’t be real, they must be a lie, no one would ever feel like that about him least of all a powerful alien warrior princess like her, what in the name of hell would she ever see in him? It must be his mind trying to play a trick on him again, trying to make him make a monumental fool out of himself again like the last time he’d asked a girl out in the deluded belief that she’d actually liked him, people at his high school still sniggered and laughed at him for that one and that was two years ago. 

Sela eleth took another step towards him and again he shied back another step, one more and he was stood with his back to the wall, “What’s wrong Robert?” she asked as she noticed the panic on his face and in his eyes, he said nothing he just shook his head and then she saw tears staring to fall down his face, was it her that he was scared of? Had she done something wrong? But then she knew what she had to do, his Matriarch had put her faith in her to protect him and now with all these feelings coursing through her she decided to was time to be bold and take a chance, so instead of taking another step forwards she dashed forwards and seized hold of him.

Robert nearly went full on panic but Sela eleth’s strength held him pinned to the wall with her body, but she didn’t harm him she merely held him in her strong arms, he looked up at her and he against found himself looking into those beautiful eyes of hers and then he felt something against his chest and it took him a second to realize it was her heart beat, it was beating so fast it felt like a Jack hammer in her chest and that’s when he realized that she was just as nervous and scared as he was, it was at that moment that he broke, he couldn’t hold it anymore and the tears burst out of him and he threw his arms around Sela’s body and clung to her, her skin was wonderfully soft and warm and his hands found the gaps in her armor and gripped onto the strong muscles of her back, Sela eleth watched this beautiful and sensitive male break down in her arms and she pulled him tightly against her, she could feel the pain flowing out of him like a river after the dam burst, every injustice he’d suffered, every pain he’d endured and every confusion he’d muddled through all at once, she felt so sorry for him, no one this young should have to endure things like this, but endure them he had and while some would look at his as weak Sela could see something totally different, she saw a beautiful and sensitive human being that had managed to endure despite the odds and the challenges thrown at him, he’d taken everything they’d thrown at him and then some and was still standing, now he needed a shoulder to let that pain and fear loose so that it sisn’t destroy him and she was only too happy to be the one that allowed him to break his mask. 

They stood like that for at least ten minutes till he was all out of tears, then he looked up into her eyes again and in a shaking voice he said words that nearly made her heart explode, “I know this is sudden and I know I probably shouldn’t and I have no idea why or how it happened at all let alone this quickly, I was always told that it was slow process but you were like a lightning bolt to my heart, I don’t know if what I felt when I was connected with you and your father was real or an illusion but I love you Sela eleth, you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life” he said in a shaking voice as if he was expecting her to flip out and strike him, but now it was her turn to surprise him, she brought her hand up and he flinched as if she was about to stoke him across the face, but instead she placed her hand to the side of his cheek and gently wiped away the remaining tears, he leaned his face against her hand loving the feeling of her soft warm touch against his face, 

“I feel exactly the same about you Robert, when I saw you for the first time I couldn’t believe that a creature so beautiful could exist, you made my mandibles drop open in shock at how striking you are, what you felt when you were with me and my father was real, you saw into my heart and I’ll admit that it scared and embarrassed me, but I’m not ashamed of the way I feel about you, it’s a mystery to me too, I never imagined love could strike this quickly or fiercely but it has and I swear this to you now, if you have me I’ll stay by your side and you’ll never have to be afraid again, I will be your shield and your sword, I will protect you to my dying breath” she said, Robert smiled so broadly that his face looked like it was going to fold in half, then a small voice from the door startled them both, 

“Just kiss her already Robert!” it said and both of them snapped their heads round to see Amy standing there smiling at them, then they looked back at each other and they both noticed the other blushing and instantly they both started laughing, both of them felt like a massive weight had been lifted from their shoulders, then Sela turned to him opened her mandibles and exposed her inner mouth to him as drew him pressing her lips to his incredibly soft and warm ones and they both melted into their very first kiss.

Sela’s heart felt like it was going to explode as she felt the soft warmth of Robert’s lips press against hers, she could feel his mouth moving slowly as he gently pulled her lower lip between his and then she did the same to his, she stroked the side of his face with the tips of her mandibles enjoying the sensations of tracing his jaw line with the sensitive tusks at the tips of her mandibles, for him this was the most exquisite and exotic experience of his life, he could feel her every breath passing past her lips and into him, it was like nothing in the world existed except for them, he could taste what to him tasted like vanilla on her lips and it was amazing, he could feel the power and strength of her muscles as she pressed her body tighter against his, he couldn’t believe it, this beautiful and immensely powerful girl wanted to be with him, for the life of him he couldn’t fathom what she saw in him but right now as they revelled in the delightful intimacy of what they were doing he didn’t care, well that was right up until a massive explosion rocked the whole hut and threw them both over and the whole place went black.


	42. Honour Bound

Sparks flew in every direction as Ryan and Shena’s father’s blades clashed, in terms of strength the elder Yaujta had a definite edge but Ryan had the edge on speed, well he would have if he hadn’t been literally running on pure hope, using his Dream Warrior abilities so extensively had left him totally washed out, but he had to keep going or it would mean his life here as he fully knew that the elder Yaujta meant what he’d said when he said that he would take his head, he also knew that if he fell Paya’s plan would fall with him as if he dies his Matriarch would retaliate and undoubtedly kill the Black Crest patriarch without mercy for taking her son’s life, this would lead to retaliation by other members of the Black Crest clan and this would lead to a full scale battle in the arena as the place descended into anarchy born of vengeance and hate.  
Ryan also foresaw the exact same result if he killed the Black Crest patriarch, even with his Dream Warrior abilities near enough depleted he could feel the eyes of every member of the family on him, he was under no illusion here that if he struck the patriarch down it would spark and instant revenge attack by the family and the result would be the same despite either kill being in the honour of the eldest Yaujta traditions.  
The elder swung his massive sword in punishing downward arc aimed directly at the centre of Ryan’s head, but with a deft motion Ryan was able to use one of his swords to turn the strike to one side and with his other blade lunged a stab forwards at the centre of the elder Yaujta’s chest, but his blade glanced straight of his thick chest plate and he had to dodge under the elder Yaujta’s arm and twist at the last second to avoid a powerful kick, the Black Crest family patriarch was certainly a skilled fighter, nothing like wither the criminals or the bad blood pauks he had faced up till now, confidence and power ebbed from him like waves in a lake, then as he dodged a series of fast swings an idea occurred to Ryan, he could see his opponent becoming more and more frustrated by his inability to land a blow on the young hybrid, maybe if he used the trick he’d used before of simply stalemating him that would frustrate him to the point where he started making mistakes and this would give him an opening.  
So when the elder Yaujta struck at him he simply blocked or dodged and simply kept circling him never striking at him but blocking every move the elder made by using his superior speed to his advantage, as sparks flew yet again from another failed lunge Ryan could see the hate and anger in the elder’s eyes building to a crescendo, but there was something that Ryan had not counted on, the elder Yaujta liked the anger as it gave him access to a rather rare and hidden talent that so few Yaujta these days had, as his anger and rage hit a peak he stood perfectly still and let loose a massive roar that felt like it shook the whole arena before sprinting straight at the young hybrid with astounding speed, from the side-lines Tik’s mandibles dropped open before she regained her mind and she roared out to Ryan, “Watch out son he’s a pauking berserker!!!” she roared.  
Now it was Ryan that was totally on the back foot as he had to use everything he had to dodge the extreme speed swings and lunges which came at him in a flurry that even at full Dream Warrior capacity he would have been hard pressed to keep up with, more than a few made it through and Ryan roared in pain a series of cuts opened on his limbs and chest from the incredibly volley of slices the elder Yaujta threw at him, Ryan found himself with his back to the wall leaning on his swords bleeding heavily and panting, the elder Yaujta simply stood there looking at him and tot his total shock Ryan saw his aura now, it was red like both the kiande amedha but at the same time flecks of white permeated it, this gave Ryan hope, there was still good in him despite the rage, as the elder Yaujta advanced on him slowly he knew he was beat, he had no strength left here, he could barely life his arms up, so he did the only thing that he could do, he prayed.  
“Paya please I beg you, I know that you’re listening and I’m begging you for the strength to let me finish this, if I must end here then so be it, but please don’t let what you’ve started here end, if I must die I am willing to do so but I need the strength for one last push” he said out loud, then just as the elder Yaujta raised his sword to finish the young hybrid he felt a massive surge of energy flow through him, “I have heard you young one, finish this” a feminine voice said in his head, with a final massive push Ryan focused all of the energy that Paya granted him into one last rush, he flew off the wall so fast that not a single eye in the room could track him, he left a purple glow in his wake as he dodged deftly under the now slow moving sword of the elder Yaujta the screeching to a halt behind him he kicked off backwards into the air and dodged the sweeping under cut that was aimed at him, with pin point precision he landed squarely on the elder Yaujta’s shoulders with a heavy thud, as he did he threw bot of his swords away and grabbed the side of the Black Crest patriarch’s head, “LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT YOU WOULD DESTROY!!!!!” Ryan roared at the top of his lungs and with the last of the energy Paya had given him he forced his mind into the elder’s mind and joined them together as one.  
The whole arena fell completely silent as the two of them stood frozen in place as if they’d become some kind of statue, both of their eyes were glowing bright purple now, Ryan forced his memories into the elder’s mind and he could feel the feelings of pure rage and hate aimed at him from the elders mind, they were so intense that it rocked him to his very core to know that a being despised him on such a level that he would cut his only daughter off from her family for merely falling in love with him, then as he was delving through the elders mind as he tried in vain to shake Ryan’s link to him he had an idea, trawling through the elders memories at the speed of thought he found was he was looking for and instantly he was able to pull the elder’s consciousness into those memories with him, the first flash they watched together was of Shena being born, he watched as if through the elder’s eyes as she yawned and stretched her mandibles in her Matriarch’s arms for the first time, he felt the pride that the elder felt, then they fast forwarded to her learning to walk and he watched as a young Shena toddled around the family living quarters before both he and her Matriarch had to make a mad dash to stop her pulling a table full of skinning blades down on her little head.  
Next up was Shena’s first official day of training and the pride he had felt when even at such a young age she’d given her tutor as run for his money with her blunted training wrist blades nearly taking out a few arteries in the process, this was followed by the secret pride he felt the day she returned from her first successful hunt with her uncle and he had placed her little trophy skull on the wall next to one of his, next they both found themselves standing facing each other in a completely black void, “Why do you insist on tormenting me with these images Dream Warrior!?” he yelled at Ryan,   
“I’m not tormenting you with anything, these are your memories elder, if anyone is tormenting you it’s you, I feel that you are tormenting yourself with your guilt” Ryan replied calmly,   
“Guilt? What guilt?” the elder spat,   
“The guilt you feel at throwing your only daughter away like she was trash, like her life was meaningless” Ryan said,   
“I did not throw her away!! You stole her from me and corrupted her!!” the elder roared,   
“Really? Did I?” Ryan asked, then suddenly the world around them wasn’t black any more, suddenly they were on the planet where Ryan met Shena, they were watching Ryan from a tree that he proceeded to run face first into, they both felt the humor as they heard the laugh, then fast forwards they watched the fight with fire tiger and they felt the fear and hopelessness as they were pinned down by the creature to the shock and relief at it being struck down by Ryan, next up they were surprised by the claim of a shared victory rather than the claiming of the honor of defeating such a large opponent, then came the part that Ryan had been waiting for, the part where he released his mask from his face and Shena saw his face for the first time, the instant feelings of attraction and curiosity were so obvious that they shone like beacons in the darkness, “You…..You…..You saved her from a fire tiger” the elder said finally as he watched the next exchange where Shena found out that Ryan was a hybrid and called him a volley of vile names before charging off into the forest,   
“No we fought it together as equals, I maintain what I said then, if she had not managed to pull its attention there’s no way that I could have pulled off such a hit without it countering me” Ryan said, now they were watching Shena get caught by the bad blood, as the elder heard the things he said to his daughter his blood boiled again,   
“Vile pauk!! How dare he threaten such vileness upon MY daughter!!” he roared at the memory, then to the elder’s utter amazement he watched as Ryan took out the bad blood and removed Shena from the trap, “You saved her” he said quietly,   
“I protected her honor from someone who threatened it, as any Yaujta would have, she is a powerful and proud huntress in her own right and I firmly believe that in a fair fight she’d have either won or died fighting, either way she’d have done it with honor” Ryan said, the elder Yaujta looked at the young hybrid with curiosity, then he returned his attention to the memory in front of him, it was the point that Shena could no longer fight or hide her feelings for Ryan and when they both gave into them, the elder visibly winced at their kiss but at the same time he felt his daughter’s emotions as clear as the morning sun, “Her…..Her…..Her feelings are pure” he stammered visibly shocked and shaken at this, Ryan smiled at him,   
“Now let me show you the same thing from another perspective” he said and before the elder could react he was shown the exact same set of memories again, but this time from Ryan’s perspective, he felt what Ryan felt when he first saw his daughter right up to their first kiss again and he stood there silently the entire time, then he slowly turned to look at the young hybrid,   
“Your feelings for her are as pure as hers are for you” he said slowly in a low voice, Ryan nodded slowly,   
“So now tell me that I either corrupted or stole her, she is a living breathing sentient being, a proud and strong Yaujta huntress who is fully in charge of her own mind and is as victim to her own heart as we all are” Ryan said, the elder nodded slowly, “I would say that you couldn’t possibly know the happiness and honor that I felt that I was the lucky male that she chose to be hers, but you know it perfectly as you felt it the same as I did” Ryan said, the elder didn’t say anything but simply watched, “Now the main thing you questioned was my birth and the fact that I am not fully Yaujta but half ooman” Ryan said, the elder eyed him suspiciously,  
“Oomans are a weak prey species worthy of only hunting or as using as slaves” he said,  
“Oh really? Then let me show you the man you call weak” Ryan said, then the memories flicked from his own to the ones that he’d gotten from his father when they’d joined from the time when he’d discovered he was a Dream Warrior.  
The elder watched with his mandibles open wide as he watched Jack fighting the kiande amedha hive single handed as Tik lay unconscious, followed by him dragging and carrying her back to her cave and the sheer determination that was fueled by the purest and strongest love that either of them had ever felt, fast forward to him fighting his way off the ship with Tik at his side, to their marriage and life on the planet that Ryan’s family now called home, then it was the birth of his hybrid children and the love and happiness that he felt as he cradled them both in his arms.  
“I’ve seen enough” the elder said sounding defeated, Ryan could feel the hate and the rage draining away from him like water down a drain, he smiled and he slowly walked up to the elder and placed a hand on his massive shoulder which caused him to flinch slightly,   
“Not such a weak species after all huh?” Ryan said, the elder looked at him,  
“Never in a million life times would I have believed a word you had said, but having seen these amazing things and having lived them as if I was actually there I can say truthfully that I was wrong, in so many ways”  
“Then let’s end this shall we?” he said, the elder nodded and with that there was another flash as the connection was severed.  
To everyone watching the pair of them looked like they were frozen in place, until Ryan released his grip and fell from the elder’s shoulders, he landed with a hard thud on his back which knocked the wind out of him, his strength was now completely gone and he was verging on the edge of unconsciousness, but he fought to stay conscious till he saw the elder turn and face him, it was at the point he saw his eyes that he gave up his fight, there were tears in the large male’s eyes.  
Tik eleth’s heart started hammering in her chest as she saw her son lose consciousness in the arena, he was a completely defenceless target now and would be an easy kill, she tightened her grip on her weapons, she knew it would be a massive breach of the Yaujta laws and codes but there was no way she was going to let them kill her beloved son, not without taking her down too, but something in the elder’s body language told her to stay her hand, his shoulders were slumped and his posture screamed of a defeated man, slowly he bent down to her unconscious son and with weapon free hands he slowly picked him up in his arms, then right in front of a stunned crowd he turned to face Tik and her companions and began to make his way towards them.  
Every set of eyes in the arena stands tracked his every step across the arena floor, there was an eerie silence so profound you could hear his every step, finally he was stood right in front of Tik eleth, slowly he extended his arms out towards her and offered her unconscious son to her, without a seconds hesitation Tik took her beloved son from him and cradled him in her arms, then without saying a word to her he glanced at his young daughter who was stood to Tik’s right, Shena’s breath caught in her chest the second she saw her father’s eyes, there were tears in them, this was a sight she’d never in a million life times imagined that she’d see, then he turned and walked silently back to the centre of the arena, before turning to face the clan leader, “I Fenris Pal Black Crest patriarch of the Black Crest family am defeated, Ryan full blooded hunter and Dream Warrior of the proud Mason clan has won” he said in a loud voice, a massive flurry of shocked voices murmured around the arena until the clan leader got to his feet and they immediately silenced,   
“That cannot be Fenris, you are still standing, the boy is not, the victory is yours surely?” he said, Fenris shook his head and pointed with his hand towards Ryan who was still being cradled protectively in his mother’s arms,   
“He might have fallen but before he did he showed me things, things that have shown me just how very wrong I was, things that have not only changed my mind but have broken my will to fight him, so I concede defeat to him and I do it with pride, no other Yaujta here could ever to hope to accomplish what he did here today, he fought with honour and distinction against every opponent that we set him against and make no mistake he was set up to fail, but fail he did not, he fought with every ounce of strength he had and given I am his last opponent here I can tell you that he is victorious, we judged him for being something we thought was an abomination because his blood is not pure Yaujta, but he showed me and all of us here that his heart most definitely is, he upheld the most sacred of our traditions and he beat us, so what does that say about us here? We thought he was something lesser than all of us, something wrong and abhorrent yet he still beat us, so maybe just maybe we’ve been looking at this all wrong all this time, I was enraged because I thought he’d corrupted and stole my beloved daughter from me and from her clan, but he showed me how wrong I was, he let me see how they met what she felt for him and how he truly felt for her and I cannot deny their love for one another, that male right there defended her and protected her honour from a bad blood pauk who would have defiled my beautiful daughter, he acted like any true honourable Yaujta should have” Fenris bellowed at the intently listening crowd, he heard the clan leader snarl from his place in the stands,   
“But he’s a filthy half breed, half his blood is ooman, weak and pathetic just like their entire race” the clan leader yelled, now it was Fenris’s turn to snarl, he turned to face him directly,   
“There’s nothing weak about his blood line trust me I know, I saw what his father did to protect the woman he loves, that woman right there” he said pointing at Tik eleth, “That weak pathetic ooman fought off an entire hive of kiande amedha single handedly to protect her while she was fallen, then he carried her through a jungle to a place of safety to treat her injuries despite being severely injured himself, that weak ooman fought his way through an entire clan ship of bad blood pauks just to fight his way back to the woman he loved and with that woman at his side they blew up that clan ship and removed an entire scourge from our galaxy a job that we ourselves had failed to do on many occasions, so if we can stand here and call a male like that weak and pathetic then what does that make us? Because the last time I checked he managed to do all the things that we couldn’t, fuelled only by his love for a member of our species and let’s be fair how many of us can stand up and say that we’d go as far as a tenth for our beloved mate’s as he did for his? So if we are going to dismiss this male’s accomplishments fuelled simply by his love for a Yaujta female just because he’s another species then we dishonour ourselves” Fenris yelled back at the clan leader, the clan leader balked at this but before he could respond another voice joined in,   
“That male you would dismiss so easily and call weak and pathetic is the male I love and would gladly lay down my life to defend his, I do not care that he is an ooman in fact it’s one of the very things I love about him, because to me it means that love is truly blind and universal as when he looks at me I see nothing but the purest and brightest love being shone at me like light from his amazing eyes, he took one look at me and saw through the shell that my life here had forced me to wear and saw me for who I really am, something that my own kind had ignored for my entire life, I lived being dismissed because I was too short or was unworthy in the eyes of my peers, in the eyes of my family and those that were supposed to love me unconditionally, all my accomplishments either ignored or given to those who stood above me for my clan’s honour, but that male that beautiful and wonderful male that I love with my entire being showed me that there was a different way, he showed me my true worth and he made me believe it, he raised me up and showed me that I didn’t need the approval of others to be who I am, he treated me with nothing but love and respect and honour that no Yaujta can ever hope to match, every day I strive to show him the very same, to show him just exactly how much he means to me, so how dare you insinuate that just because he’s ooman that he’s not worthy of me, I decide who’s worthy of me not you and if anything it’s me that’s not worthy of him, he is the kindest, gentlest, strongest and most powerful male I have ever met and every day I count the blessings of Paya that she brought that beautiful and wondrous ooman being to me just when I was at my darkest and in the deepest pit of my despair and allowed him to fall in love with me and me with him, he pulled me from that place and now I couldn’t be happier to stand by his side and it is my distinct honour to call myself his life mate, if it was not for him I would not be alive let alone standing here cradling one of my little miracles here in my arms” Tik thundered in a loud voice, the crowd listened and watched her in awe, but she wasn’t done yet, “So you take a good look at my beautiful son, the very one who you tried to kill simply for being alive, for daring to try and live a life that he had no choice in having and for having the gall to look at one of our kind with the same eyes that his father looked at me with all those years ago, but who is it that’s still alive? Who is it that despite your very obvious attempts to dishonourably stack his trial by combat, which I remind you is one of our oldest and most sacred traditions in your favour continues to live? You call him an abomination because he his half ooman but that’s not something he now or ever will be ashamed of, he is proud of his half ooman side and so he should be, because here today he showed you exactly what someone with ooman and Yaujta blood can do, he’s stronger than any of us and he just proved that while we are strong alone together we are far stronger” Tik roared in such a proud and mighty voice that it brought tears to the eyes of a great majority of the crowd, the clan leader began to snarl but before he could say a single word a clap sprung up from the crowd and it soon grew in volume till it nearly shook the entire arena like thunder as Yaujta of all shapes and sizes and surprisingly sexes sounded their approval for her words.  
The clan leader looked absolutely astounded at this reaction and he and his loyal bodyguards looked around the crowd in amazement, before the clapping was done yet another of his little group stepped forwards, it was Shena Black Crest or Shena Mason as she’d rather publicly renounced her family name in front of everyone here, in front of everyone she placed her hand to the side of Ryan’s unconscious face and placed her forehead to his before turning to face her father, “My beloved daughter I cannot tell you or ever hope to express to you how sorry I am, I was so angry and incensed that young hybrid male had taken you from me that I was blinded by my rage and I just seized onto the first thing that I could think of, I was just so convinced that he would pollute you and spoil you in some way, but I never realised how deeply he felt for you or how pure his love for you is or even just how far he’d go to protect you, but I am happy to say that I was wrong, just because he isn’t fully Yaujta is not a reason to believe him to be any less of a life form than an of us standing here, in many ways he is more so because even with all we did to him he still had enough compassion and empathy to still try and change my mind, when he could have just have used that strength of his to either drive me mad or kill me, but he didn’t, so I know that this probably doesn’t mean much to you now and for that I am sorry but I’d just like you to know that I recognise your heart claim to him as well and I bless it, there is no finer male out there and no more honourable one who could win your heart, and I want you to know how proud I am of you for standing here and being willing to do what you would have done to save him, any true Yaujta should be as willing to go as far for one they love” he said, without saying a word Shena’s face crumpled and she began to sob at her father’s words, then she flew at him at top speed and threw herself into his arms and the pair clung together.  
Tik eleth smiled proudly at her daughter in law as she made her peace with her father, suddenly she became aware of others now in the arena, to her surprise other Yaujta from the crowd seemed to be jumping from the stands and into the arena and making their way over to the group, she counted thirty females of varying ages but pretty much all on the young end of the scale, there were also ten males making a total of forty, they simply formed up into a group walked up to her and stood with her group, the oldest female who was younger than Tik herself but a fair bit taller walked up to the clan Matriarch, “We wish to join you, we saw the truth in your words and we’re sick of being treated the way we are, we’re sick of not being able to speak out or being shouted down when we do or threatened with being classed as different or deviant just because we want something more, so if this ooman love if everything you say it is then we’d like to give it a try, when you go back to the world you live on we’d like to come with you and if he doesn’t want to let you leave then we’ll fight with you” she said, Tik’s face was one of surprise but she welcomed the newcomers with a smile,   
“You are welcome to join us but other than my mate there are no other oomans where we live” she replied, suddenly Ryan stirred in her arms and he opened his eyes, looking up at his Matriarch whose happy and relieved face was looking down at him,   
“I think father can do something about that” he said in a groggy voice, Tik looked at him with confused eyes, but before she could say anything he continued, “I just saw him in my dreams, he’s in a place where there are many oomans back on that hunting world and I think more than a few of them would want to come with us but first they need our help” he said,   
“What do you mean?” Tik asked her voice filling with concern instantly for her beloved mate,   
“They’re under attack by the bad bloods and father will need our help to protect them” Ryan said in a very groggy voice that showed he was still half in half out of the dream and given he was a Dream Warrior Tik knew to take his visions seriously, instantly her demeanor darkened and she lowered her beloved son to his feet, when he wavered two of the other females from the group rushed forwards and aided him to stand while at the same time giving Tik a nod that said ‘Do what you need to sister’ as soon as she saw this Shena rushed from her father to her beloved’s side and took over from the other two in supporting him, they knowingly relinquished their hold on him to her.   
Tik eleth turned to face the clan leader and took a couple of strides towards him and as she did she was instantly flanked on both sides and behind by the queens who had decided to support her as they had supported her son, stood there flanked by such powerful allies and cutting such a fearsome figure herself Tik eleth commanded the respect of everyone in the arena, “Now that we have my son all of us gathered here are going to leave and I open an invitation to anyone else gathered here that if you ever felt like your life was worth more than you receive here join us and see what it can truly be, now whether we leave in peace is up to you but I warn you now, try to stop us and you will be facing far more of a battle than you can handle” she said loudly, at her words all three of the queens closed up on her and hissed in unison at the clan leader who was now wearing a distinctly worried expression, he glanced around and saw the remainder of the crowd all eying him curiously, it was a major decision here, if he chose to try and detain them he’d have a war on his hands and he could see that every member of that little group including the defectors from his own clan were willing to fight to the death here, on the other hand letting them go could be shown as a sign of his weakness and might cause dissension in his clan, but given the fight that they’d put up simply to reach them he had to respect their determination and the sort of losses that a fight with this group would create would just not be worth it, he sighed heavily and stepped up to the rail, “Very well, as your son has passed his trials he is here by set free, you may all leave in peace and may you never darken our door again” he said, Tik smiled darkly at him,  
“It’s not me you should be worried about, now that others have seen what freedom is and what their lives could be, something tells me you’re going to have bigger problems than having to deal with me again” she said softly gesturing to the crowd around her, then she simply turned and with her escort of queens and now quite sizable group fellow Yaujta walked out of the arena and headed directly for the launch bay, all the time her thoughts were on one thing and one thing only, reaching her beloved Ack before it was too late, Ryan’s words had really troubled her.


	43. When Darkness Falls

With his vision blurred and his head ringing like a bell Jack struggled to sit up, as he tried to look around himself he could see flashes of colour and muffled booms from all around him, suddenly a face appeared in front of him so close that he was able to see it through the blur, “Come on Jack we need you!! The fucking bad bloods are attacking!!” Angel screamed at him so loudly that it pierced his head like a spear, with an odd pop his senses seemed to realign and he was able to see clearly again.  
Around him was utter chaos, rubble and small fires were everywhere along with plasma bolts sizzling through the air as they passed, Jack heard the sharp cracks of automatic gunfire and pings of ricochets as the humans fought back, quickly he held up his hand to Angel and she hauled him to his feet, as she did he saw something moving behind her like a heat haze, quick as a flash he pushed Angel to one side causing her to fall, “Hey what the fuck?!!” she yelled as she fell face first towards the ground, with the same momentum from the move Jack tore the large sword from its scabbard between his shoulders and drove it forwards at terrifying speed, to Angel’s amazement she saw green spurts as the massive runed blade pierced through a cloaked Yaujta and lifted it into the air, with a mighty swing Jack sent the decloaking body sprawling sideways into a pile of rubble with sparks of electricity dancing around it as cloaking device failed.  
Just as he was about to stand up right he saw a flash to his left and he turned using the massive sword as a shield, it proved to be just in time as a long curved blade slammed down into it and slid up the sword before hitting the hand guard with a loud clang of steel on steel, the Yaujta who had swung the blow dove backwards before preparing to make another strike, he circled Jack counter clockwise before raising his arm to launch his next attack, but before he could start the swing his head exploded with a massive shower of green blood and gore, Jack looked at the headless body with a look of confusion for a second before he heard a distant roar from behind him and he knew what had happened.  
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Through her scope Sela eleth saw the bad blood’s head explode and she saw her father watch him fall, she roared a battle cry to rally everyone near her to battle, through her scope she saw her father raise his sword above his head and answer her battle cry with one of his own, he then turned and pulled the ooman woman called Angel to her feet and both of them rushed forwards to protect the group of civilians that had been with her father before the cowardly bad bloods had launched their sneak attack. Glancing to her right Sela looked at Robert’s unconscious form, he was covered in soot and dirt and his skin was so black it looked burnt, he was bleeding from a couple of cuts to his head and face that she knew would give some scars, she couldn’t believe how fast he had reacted when their hut had been hit by one of the projectiles the bad bloods had fired into the village, they had been sharing their first kiss when the hut had been blown apart around them, but even before her mind could process what was happening Robert had thrown her to the ground and had thrown himself over her, he had protected her from the falling beams and ceiling with his body, as a result he had taken some pretty heavy hits to his upper body and head, the last thing she’d seen before it had all gone dark was his beautiful eyes burning with the fiercest determination to protect her.  
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As it turned out Amy had been blown clear of the hut as she had been standing in the doorway when the projectile had hit, so now she was nursing Robert and trying to clean his wounds while Sela eleth was providing cover fire for the now mobilising ooman warriors and her father below her, as it had come as a total surprise none of them had been ready and chaos had ensued, but now she could see the soldiers appearing from various locations around the smoking and burning remains of the village and they were fighting back, at first she had been scared and confused but when she’d seen Sela eleth pull Robert from the rubble of her hut and lay him on the ground she’d known what she had to do, so while Sela protected them she tried her best to clean his wounds up and watched as the strong alien girl rained bullet after bullet down on their attackers with burning rage in her eyes, even Amy as young as she was could see that Sela eleth was going to make those that hurt her boyfriend pay in blood.  
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Jack couldn’t believe just how many bad bloods had gotten down here without them being noticed, he counted at least fifty of them on the ground and another thirty descending from the hole in the ceiling, as he looked around he could see the black auras of those still using their cloaking devices, but also he could see the human defenders rushing in from every direction to form up on him, he figured it was probably because in his white armour he was the easiest to see in this massive cluster fuck, Monty appeared to his left holding a massive pump action shotgun, he fired a few volleys in the direction of the approaching bad bloods making them dive for cover, “Find cover and dig in!! Make them bleed for every fucking step!!” he yelled at the top of his voice towards the group of soldiers, they promptly scattered and got into cover in a sizeable set of rocks that had formed natural trenches on the opposite side of the vast cave from where Sela was continuing her sniper barrage, they instantly poured return fire on the bad bloods which halted their charge and caused them to have to seek cover of their own to avoid being just mown down like those tin the front ranks were.   
The front ranks of the charging bad bloods were torn to shreds by the hail of automatic gunfire, it caused the cave floor where they were to turn bright glowing green as blood poured from their shredded bodies, Monty then turned to Jack, “Well it looks like the plan’s off laddie, this time I think we are well and truly fucked” he said as he fired off a couple more shots in the direction of the bad bloods, plasma bolts sizzled passed them on both sides striking the rocks behind them,   
“Don’t count us out yet Monty lets show em what we learned from the Spartans and give them a giant kick in the balls and besides if we do go down then we’re gonna take as many of these fuckers as we can with us” Jack said with a dark smile, instantly Monty’s face cracked in to a massive grin,   
“Aye laddie that we fucking well are!!” he said, Jack turned and looked at the approaching bad bloods who were trying to avoid the incoming fire by hugging the rocks and an idea struck him,   
“I have an idea get everyone into shooting positions and get every civilian to cover that you can” Jack said pulling his hunting mask off his belt and placing it on his face, as he did both his plasma casters stood bolt upright,   
“Where are you going laddie?” Monty asked,   
“To stir shit up” Jack said with a hidden smile and with that he turned to look at the rise where his beloved daughter was, he tapped the side of his mask and then his heart before turning and sprinting towards the bad bloods at full tilt.  
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“He’s not going to do what I think he’s going to do” Sela said to herself as she watched her father make the sign for keep your eyes on me and follow my lead, then before she could blink he was moving so fast she had trouble tracking him, in fact if it wasn’t for his white armour she’d have had no chance spotting him as he smashed straight into the ranks of the bad bloods, she watched as his massive sword cut two of them in half with a single sideways swing before he rolled out of the way of two plasma shots aimed at his head, Sela drew a bead on the shooter and fired striking him straight through the chest blowing a massive hole where his heart used to be, “Fire at my father will you honourless pauk?!!” she roared as she loosed off another two shots taking down another two who broke cover to move behind her father, a couple of plasma bolts hissed over her head as the bad bloods tried to rid themselves of the angel on her father’s shoulder, to which she responded in kind, but just as it looked like her father was making a dent her heart sank as she saw yet more of them descending from the ceiling, these fresh warriors would bring the total on the battlefield up to over a hundred bad bloods vs twenty ooman soldiers, one hybrid sniper and a Dream Warrior, this did not look good.  
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“He fights like a force of nature my queen” her second in command said in a gruff voice as he watched the feeds from the mask cams, in fact the one he was watching just had his head severed from his shoulders by the ooman’s massive sword, the camera was just able to capture him firing his twin plasma casters at two others at point blank range as he moved to swing his sword at another target.  
A soft growl escaped her throat as she watched this ooman dressed in full white Yaujta armour fight, “What do you expect Kallas he’s a Dream Warrior, ooman or not it makes him a force to be respected and I should know” the bad blood queen said as she watched the feed, she had a rather growing respect for this ooman Dream Warrior as she watched him fight, she also felt a growing dark envy for the Yaujta woman who had claimed his heart, she looked at the monitor to her right which displayed a picture of Tik eleth taken by one of her scouts back on the world she and this Ack called home, in the picture she was holding Ack in her arms holding him in a rather tight hug, “What does he see in an a pauking inferior specimen like her? I should show him what a true Yaujta woman is and together we could crush the Yaujta clans!!” she roared punching her fist through the monitor causing it to explode in a shower of sparks, her outburst shocked her second in command, but not as much as her words,   
“B-B-B-But my queen, he’s an ooman a filthy prey species! He’s not worthy of one such as you!” Kallas stammered looking at his queen in shock, she turned as fast as lightening and he never saw the blow coming, it hit him so hard that he flew across the bridge and slammed into the metallic bulk head with a loud clang,   
“Don’t you dare presume to tell me who is worthy of me or not, I decide who is worthy of me and that filthy ooman as you call him is worth a hundred of you!!” she spat at him, then she turned to her two attendants as Kallas was picking himself up off the floor, “Fetch me my armour and my weapons” she said with enough venom that it sent her attendants running in fear, she turned and stroked the monitor with a single claw, “I’ll make that ooman mine if it’s the last thing I do and I’ll show him the true path he needs to walk” she said, Kallas wiped the blood from his mandibles as he re-joined her by her side, he was used to his queen’s temper by now and he knew better than to make anything of it, her last second in command had dared to do this once and they were still finding bits of him in the venting ducts after she fed him feet first into a cooling fan.  
“You want to make him into a Nightmare Assassin my queen?” Kallas asked, she turned and gave him a dark smile that sent a shiver down his spine,   
“Think of it Kallas, if I can break him and make him fall, I’ll turn that pure white fire that burns around him to the purest black, darker than the depths of the void itself, he’ll become the agent of death that he was meant to be, then and only then when his heart and his soul belong to me and me alone will I grace him with the greatest gift in this universe, myself, oh can you see it Kallas? Our perfect Nightmare Assassin hybrid offspring going forth to stamp out the Yaujta clans like a wave of darkness washing over those self-righteous pauks!!” she said running her claw tenderly over the monitor again.  
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Jack was burning through energy at an incredible rate, but he was also going through enemies at the same rate, so far his plan was working well, by being in amongst the bad blood warriors he ensured that their focus was solely on him and not on the others, this was giving the soldiers the time they needed to secure the civilians and get them off the battle field.  
Turning to his right he saw five bad bloods dropping down from the ropes that they were using to descend into the cave, as they dropped to the floor they instantly drew their wrist blades and trained their plasma castors on him, with a mighty roar Jack charged them with his sword kept low to his right ready to swing in an upward arc, just before he reached the first one in the group his head exploded in a shower of green blood and skull fragments, without even breaking his stride Jack swung around his body like it was a lamppost and used the momentum to swing his massive sword in a full hundred and eighty degree sideways slice, this had the effect of cutting the second one in the group fully in half, the heavy sword carried Jack around in a spinning arc allowing him to bring it up in front of him again, the third member of the group was drawing a bead on him, the positioning of his sword proved to be just in time to deflect a plasma bolt from his caster, which bounced harmlessly off the amazingly strong metal and went hissing directly upwards, well as it turned out it wasn’t so harmless as above him Jack heard a roar of pain as the plasma bolt hit one of the currently descending bad bloods right in the arse blowing his legs clean off and causing him to fall from his rope, but Jack was totally unaware of this scene as his mind was totally focused in his slow motion world as he took aim with his mighty sword, with a massive roar of anger he drove the huge blade forwards like a lance and struck the next bad blood straight through the midriff, but he didn’t stop there, using his Dream Warrior strength to its maximum he drove the blade straight through him and into the next one directly behind him, fortunately the sword was so long that with his legs pushing him forwards like mighty pistons the sword emerged from the second’s back and proceeded into the gut of the third.  
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Angel and Cortez were firing on the group descending from the ceiling, their rounds had caused more than one to lose their grip and fall from the ropes to their deaths on the hard rocks below, as she saw a plasma bolt go straight up and blow one of the descending bad blood’s legs off at his arse Angel risked a glance downwards and was shocked by what she saw, Jack had three of them impaled on his massive sword and was ragging them around like dolls, he appeared to be using them as shields to block incoming fire while he returned fire over their corpses with his shoulder mounted plasma casters.  
Out of nowhere Angel suddenly heard heavy footsteps running towards her from her right, so she rolled left and turned her rifle just in time to see a bad blood bearing down on her preparing to stick her with his terrible looking wrist blades, that was until a little white blur came out of nowhere and attached itself to the bad blood’s face, with a massive roar and howl of pain the bad blood stopped his assault and took off in the direction of the main battle, Angel watched in utter surprise as Boo the cat proceeded to shred the bad bloods face with his claws, in fact the scene was so surreal that the entre battle seemed to come to a complete halt as everyone human and Yaujta alike all turned to watch this solitary bad blood warrior running blindly across the battle field with a small white cat attached to his face.  
A loud thump and a whoosh of air next to her made her jump and she snapped out of her trance and spun left to be greeted by Monty and his squad dropping down next to them, “Well that’s all of them lassie, all the civilians are accounted for and secured in the fallout shelter, how the fuck we didn’t lose anyone is nothing short of a miracle, how’s things going out here?” he asked over the resumed din of gun fire and plasma shots,   
“Well Jack is still doing his Dream Warrior thing out there and he is seriously fucking them up half of them don’t know whether to run towards him or away from him” she said pointing in the direction of the white blur who had now dislodged his triple corpse shield and was back in amongst the ranks swinging his sword left and right cutting a swath right through them,   
“Sela is harassing the fuck out of them making sure none of them get behind her father or too close to our front lines” she continued pointing in the direction of the young hybrid sniper just as the massive report of her rifle was heard echoing of the inner walls of the cave like a cannon shot, it was well timed and placed as a bad blood stuck his head up to get a bead on the human defenders it was promptly turned into green goo.  
“We’re holding our own here, so far we have no fatalities and only a few minor injuries thanks to these trenches and even Amy’s fucking cat is getting stuck in” Angel said pointing at yet another bad blood with a small white object attached to its face running around howling in agony as its eyes were promptly sliced out at the end of a flurry of claw slashes.  
Monty watched in utter shock as he saw the bad blood with the small cat on its face run full tilt into the wall promptly knocking itself out, the small cat deftly jumped clear at the last second and landed on its paws in the middle of the field before taking off in the direction of his next victim who saw him coming and proceeded to try and run from the small white house cat in full battle mode, “What in the name of fuck has gotten into that thing?” he said as he watched the cat change direction at the last moment to jump up onto Jack’s back and use him as a spring board to leap over his shoulder right at the face of another rather surprised bad blood, who promptly vainly tried to remove the screeching ball of claws and teeth before his eyes were removed.  
“Fucked if I know, I think he’s been spending too much time with our resident Dream Warrior friend and some of that battle frenzy shit that he’s pulling out there has rubbed off on him, all I know is I’m glad he’s on our side because I sure as shit don’t want him on my face” Angel said with a knowing smile, a sudden roar to their left caused both of them to spin around and Monty promptly unleashed a volley of buck shot into the mid-section of a charging bad blood at close range, the result was that they were all showered in glowing green blood as his guts exploded from the powerful blast of the shotgun, Monty cocked the shotgun again one handed causing a smoking shell to go spiralling from the breach on its way to the floor,   
“You know lassie even if we don’t win this thing we can still show these fuckers a world of hurt that they’ll never fucking forget!!” Monty said with a grin as he levelled his shotgun again,   
“Amen to that Monty now let’s show these fuckers not to mess with humanity, we’ll make them carry their dead outta here with a fucking forklift!!” she yelled and with that they resumed firing on the advancing bad bloods.  
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The battle had been raging for a solid half an hour before the human defenders really started to run into major problems, ammunition was running dry from the human weapons and from her vantage point on the rise Sela knew that if their weapons ran dry so would their luck, she herself had been out of bullets for about ten minutes now, she had been deciding on the best course of action from here, the Yaujta part of her wanted to rush down there and join her father in the melee, but the ooman side of her knew that with the odds stacked against them with the ever increasing numbers of bad bloods who were still continuing to arrive in droves that this would be senseless, it would undoubtedly get her killed and possibly her father too as he would then have to watch her back as well, but she had to help the ooman defenders somehow otherwise everyone was dead, with the loss of his sniper cover her father was having to work twice as hard to keep the bad bloods occupied as now that death wasn’t raining down on them from on high every time they stuck their heads out of cover they were getting bold, suddenly her eyes were drawn to the body of one of the bad bloods that was on the ground not far from her position, something shiny had caught her attention and as she realised what it was a smile broke out on her mandibles, turning to Amy who was still caring for Robert, “Stay here and stay out of sight” she said in a low voice,   
“What where are you going Sela?” Amy asked in a voice filled with fear and surprise,   
“I have to help the ooman fighters, without any bullets for my gun they’ve lost their cover fire and they’re running out of bullets down there” Sela said,  
“B-B-B-B-But if you go then who will look after me and Robert!?” Amy asked in a trembling voice, Sela put a large hand on the small girl’s shoulder,   
“Trust me, there’s nothing than I want more than to protect Robert and you, I’d die to protect you both you know that, but they need help down there and if someone doesn’t do something then everyone is going to die” Sela said with a serious tone to her voice, Amy glanced down at the small group of humans hidden in the rocks firing at the advancing bad bloods, then she switched her glance to Sela’s father who was still in the middle of them fighting for all he was worth, he was so covered in Yaujta blood at this point that he was barely recognisable as human, she could even see Boo her precious little friend fighting at Jack’s side, he was currently attached to the back of a bad blood’s head biting at the back of his head and tearing at his dreadlocks with his claws casing him to flail wildly in order to try and remove him, then she looked back into Sela’s face and she saw the grim determination in the young alien girl’s eyes,   
“Go help them, I’ll hide Robert up here, but please don’t forget about us” she said softly, Sela nodded before giving Amy a farewell hug, she just hoped it wasn’t their last, before she turned and sprinted down off the ridge heading for the body of the bad blood.  
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From her position in amongst the rocks Angel was firing on bad bloods left and right as targets presented themselves, some were using that cloaking tech of theirs while other preferred to charge right at them with weapons drawn in some sort of suicidal death or glory charge, now she’d gotten to know the patterns that their cloaking tech created as they moved it had become easier to spot the cloaked warriors trying to sneak up on them and to give them the good news, for the god only knows what time her weapon clicked on a dry breach and immediately she scrambled for a magazine only to find she had none, “I’m out!!” she roared as she scrambled for her side arm, two magazines clanged off the rocks by her head and she immediately grabbed them and slammed one home,   
“That’s my last two make them count!!” Cortez yelled over his shoulder as he fired at a fast moving target, as Angel propped her AR15 back on its rock she noticed a fast moving target moving low amongst the bodies of the fallen bad bloods, she immediately drew a bead and fired, a spray of green showed a hit and she silently rejoiced as she saw her target stumble and fall, that was until she saw what she’d hit, “SHIT!! FRIENDLY ON THE FIELD CHECK YOUR FIRE!!!” she roared as she desperately scanned the area where she’d seen Sela eleth fall.  
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Sela felt like she’d been punched by an invisible fist in the back as the bullet struck her, she went down on her face hard sending what she’d been carrying bouncing along the floor, but her determination made her force herself through the mind splitting pain in her back where the bullet had clipped her, fortunately it had been a clean hit and had punched straight through and back out again making a neat hole through the flesh just below her shoulder armour, but the adrenaline pounding in her head made her immediately get back to her feet and pick up what she had been carrying before going for more, she knew that it was a human weapon that had made the hit because if it had been a plasma caster she’d already be dead.  
Pretty soon her arms were full and now she became aware of cover fire heading in her direction, bullets whizzed past her on both sides effectively distracting the bad bloods all around her from her presence among them, finally she had as many as she could carry and she turned and ran full tilt towards the ooman lines, as she ran she could hear someone yelling at the top of their lungs, “FRIENDLY COMING IN DO NOT FIRE DO NOT FIRE!!!!!” the female voice roared, as she charged up the rise towards their position, a few of the bad bloods now noticed that it was not one of their own running towards the oomans and took a few pot shots at her which sizzled the air around her as they passed by so close that she could feel the heat from them on her skin, falling into the rocks that hid the ooman defenders with a loud crash she dropped her cargo and it bounced all around her, suddenly Angel’s face appeared in front of her,   
“Fucking hell Sela what the fuck were you playing at out there I nearly fucking killed you!!” the woman said grabbing her shoulders and immediately searching for her shoulder wound before tearing packets of some sort of powder and pouring it onto the wounds, so it had been her that had shot her while she was running, somehow that made sense to her, the powder burnt like she’d just poured liquid metal from her father’s forge into the wound and she roared in pain properly feeling the wound for the first time since she’d received it, the young blond ooman woman was rapidly jamming bandages and gauze against he wound and trying to bind it,   
“I figured you would be running out of bullets like me, so I did something about it” Sela said through gritted teeth, Angel looked at her with confusion written all over her face, so Sela pointed at her cargo and the ooman female turned to look at what she was pointing at before a massive smile broke out on her face,   
“Sela eleth I could fucking kiss you, you’re a fucking genius” she said,  
“There is only one ooman that is permitted to kiss me and that’s my Robert” Sela said with a shocked tone in her voice as she prepared herself to fend off any advances by this ooman female, Angel burst out laughing at the young girl’s innocent confusion and surprise, then she turned to the others in the group,   
“Hey guys resupply has arrived!!” she yelled which cause more than a few to turn and look at what she was pointing at, quite a few smiles broke out as they all took in the pile of hunting masks and plasma casters that Sela had brought in, “I hope you know how to use these things” Angel said looking at Sela,   
“Of course my Matriarch trained me with one since I was able to walk, but I always preferred my father’s method, far more skill involved and more honour to be had with a clean kill made without auto targeting” Sela eleth said, Angel’s face broke into a huge smile,   
“Auto targeting now I like the sound of that” she said, Monty appeared to her left,   
“What the hell is happening over here lassie?” he asked as he took in the freshly bandaged form of Sela eleth laid in front of him,   
“Jack’s amazing daughter here just brought us a fucking game changer Monty” Angel said pointing at the pile of hunting masks and plasma casters, Monty’s bushy eyebrows went so far up his head they looked like they were about to take flight,   
“I’m not even gonna ask how you got those lassie, but you’re a fucking miracle worker that’s for sure, let’s get these distributed to everyone and let’s take this fight up a notch shall we?” he said with a smile that made his moustache twitch.  
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Jack was exhausted, he had no idea where the energy that was driving him on was coming from but he got the distinct feeling that when it came to paying it back it was going to have a hell of a price, he taken to using his smaller single handed swords now as the weight of the massive two handed sword was slowing his movements, so it had been returned to the scabbard on his back and was acting like a rear mounted shield preventing any strikes against his back from doing any harm other than glancing off the massive blade, he was so covered in glowing green Yaujta blood and red human blood from his own excessive wounds that he knew he would barely recognise himself if he saw his reflection.   
Feeling a soft pressure on his right shoulder a little face appeared next to his, Boo the cat looked how he felt, the little guy was the picture of exhaustion and was covered in Yaujta blood as well as he was missing enough of his fur from various close calls with plasma casters that he looked like he was wearing some sort of patchwork quilt, but there was a fire of pure determination burning in those bright little eyes that told him all he needed to know, “In this till the bitter end eh little buddy?” Jack said to the little cat and got a soft but determined meow as a response, Jack stroked his little head and got a happy purr in response, “Alright brace yourself and carry your righteous rage to these fuckers” he said, the cat looked confused at his words till Jack grabbed him from his shoulder and with a mighty swing launched him straight into the face of a charging bad blood, who promptly howled as the little cat extracted his fury at being launched as a cat grenade out on the bad blood’s eyes and mandibles with his claws, this sent green glowing blood spraying from his eye sockets and face all around the little cat like he’d gotten in the way of a hose pipe.   
As Boo turned the bad blood’s face into a glowing substance resembling mince Jack turned and grabbed the incoming spear of another bad blood to his left and pulled it forwards with enough force to drag the wielder face first into his lunging sword, there was still plenty of fight in him yet and as it turned out so was there in his companions, because at that moment behind him he heard a mighty roar from a very familiar source, as he turned to glance at the source he saw his beloved daughter now standing atop the ridge where the humans were entrenched, she looked every bit the proud Yaujta huntress as she stood giving a mighty battle cry now armed with a plasma caster on her shoulder, this battle cry was soon echoed by the humans that she was with and to Jack’s utter surprise quite few of them all seemed to be armed with plasma casters of their own, fuck only knows how they’d gotten them but they swiftly started putting them to good use by launching volley after volley into the advancing bad blood ranks, this caused the ranks to split and dive for cover as their own mighty energy weapons were turned on them with deadly effect, Jack felt his pride swell as he saw his daughter standing at the front of the human ranks fighting with everything she was to defend the innocent, suddenly he felt his pride and his rage swell and refresh him and with a voice that shook the very cave to its foundations he let loose a roar of his own that sounded like it had come from the very depths of hell itself, it was so loud and fierce that it caused more than a few of the bad bloods around him to scatter and run in fear of what was now about to be unleashed, it was at that point Jack became aware of the white fire all around him, but this wasn’t his aura, this was totally visible and he knew this because he could see it being reflected in the armours of the various bad bloods around him, but it wasn’t only Jack that sent the bad bloods running in fear, a presence made itself known to Jack now and he could feel the darkness and hatred surrounding it like staring into the heart of the void, as he turned he saw the crowd of bad bloods parting like the red seas to reveal a female Yaujta in full black armour striding towards him, she was covered in skulls and trophies of the various kills that she’d made and her armour looked cracked and pitted by various battle scars, a black fire swirled around her like a living shadow as she moved, instantly Jack knew that this was the bad blood’s leader and that she was no ordinary Yaujta, this one was a Dream Warrior, but not one like himself or Ryan, this one had fallen and had embraced an evil and darkness so pure that it now flowed off her like a river of liquid shadows, slowly he turned to face her and she stopped to face him directly, around them the bad blood ranks moved to form a large circle, but none of them even dared to get between their queen and her prize, even from here Jack could feel her rage focused on him, it actually felt like heat being directed at him.  
“You have fought valiantly Dream Warrior but surely you can see it’s futile” the bad blood leader said in a deep gruff voice that somehow seemed to drip with femininity,   
“Maybe, but I know that I speak for all of us here when I say that we’ll die on our feet before we roll over and let you win and from what I can see of our remaining forces it’s a hell of a lot to zero on the kill scale to us” Jack said with a small smile, the bad blood queen huffed,   
“I do have to give it to your little band of oomans they fight like cornered kiande amedha” she said pointing with the tip of a huge black cracked and nasty looking two handed sword towards where the human front lines were,   
“Not bad for a filthy prey species eh?” Jack said with his voice dripping with sarcasm, this caused the queen’s tempter to flare but she managed to control it, never before had an opponent had the stones to take the piss out of her to her face, but this ooman Dream Warrior was something else, it made her determination to break him and claim him all the stronger,   
“You know you could be so much more than you are Ack, think about it, with your power and your ability you could be a king, you could rule that little back water planet that you call home with an iron fist, your will would be law and you could crush any that dare to oppose you” she said slowly circling him, Jack eyed her cautiously,   
“Think about it, with me at your side we could crush the ooman governments and bring them to heel and with you at my side I could crush the Yaujta clans and unite them all under my banner, there would peace in the universe with us at its head, king and queen of the pauking universe, with our strength united there would be none that dare oppose us and we’d crush those stupid enough to try” the queen said balling her fist to emphasize her point,   
“Together?” Jack asked confused, she turned to him and gave him a smile that turned his stomach,   
“Every queen needs a king Ack and you’ve already shown that you have a taste for my species by taking on that pitiful excuse for a Yaujta female to be your mate, I will show you what a true Yaujta female is supposed to be, I’ll show you what you’ve been really missing out on all this time with that pathetic excuse for a female that you call a mate” she replied with a sickening purr to her voice that actually made Jack gag at the merest thought of her anywhere near him, it’s true that Yaujta are not exactly super models when it came to beauty standards, but what they lacked in aesthetics they made up for in so many other beautiful ways, but that was a moot point in Jack’s eyes anyway as to him Tik was the most radiantly beautiful creature in this universe and there was no way he’d let anyone harm a dreadlock on her head without going through him first, but this female was truly hideous and not just in the aesthetics department, he could feel the blackness and horrid empty void that was her soul from here, she was pure evil made flesh, his anger flared at her gall to call his beautiful beloved mate pitiful.   
“You know, it really is a kind offer but I think I’m gonna pass, I think a better plan would be and follow me closely on this one, how about I just kill you and then I take your head, then I can let that pitiful female as you call her, who I happen to love and adore with every fibre of my being, either piss on or just smash your skull, or she could first piss on it and then smash it, yeah that sounds like a plan as it’s not worth even taking as a trophy, I mean who in the name of Paya would want something that fucking hideous hanging on their wall?” Jack said using the tip of his sword to emphasize his point, the queen let loose a blood curdling roar of anger at being called unworthy of a trophy, then she glared at Jack with such menace that he felt a cold shiver pass down his spine,   
“I am going to make you mine ooman and you know what? Once I’ve broken you and while I force you to mate with me I’m going to make that pitiful excuse of a family of yours watch, so that pitiful excuse of a female can see just what I’ve taken from her before I make you watch as I let the males of my clan have their fun with your pitiful excuse for a mate and daughter before I skin them alive and use their skins to clean up your seed from between my legs!!” she roared, these words hit home with Jack and he roared a battle cry at her while placing his twin swords back into their scabbard, swiftly retrieving his massive two handed sword again, a dark smile passed over her face, “Well then Ack shall we begin our courtship dance?” she said before she charged right at him at incredible speed with her sword raised high above her head.


	44. Love's Rage

Chapter 44: Love’s Rage.  
The crash of blade on blade echoed throughout the cave as again and again Jack and the bad blood queen traded blows, she was like no opponent Jack had every faced, he couldn’t read or predict her moves as where his speed would usually cause everyone around him to move in slow motion, but she was so fast it now felt like he was the one moving in slow motion.  
It was all he could do to defend himself against the queen’s savage onslaught as she rained blow after blow on him, just in the nick of time he saw her begin to change direction on a swing and he was barely able to counter it causing a shower of sparks to fly from his blade as her connected with arm jarring power, the entire time the queen seemed to be enjoying this by the sick grin plastered on her vile face, she evaded a powerful kick from Jack and spun around it to behind him, before he could react he felt her grab his armour and pull him against her, he felt the lick along his jaw and instantly he smelt her vile breath on his face, “You will make a fine king once I break you” she said in his ear before a backwards elbow strike connected with her face, in order to have the speed to prevent a dodge Jack had to let go of his sword and swing back his arm, but it had the desired effect and he felt his elbow strike her square between her mandibles with a sickening crunch, before he could follow it up with a punch from his other armoured fist she jumped backwards out of his reach.  
Using her right hand, she wiped her blood from her mouth before licking it from her fingers, then the sick smile returned to her face, “That’s the spirit my love” she said in a gut churning purr, it was like she actually enjoyed the pain he’d inflicted, Jack saw her begin to drop into a battle stance and he knew there was no time to retrieve his sword so he drew his two one handed blades and braced himself for yet another onslaught, at this rate she was going to exhaust him before he was able to land a single proper blow on her.  
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At the other side of the battle field Sela eleth and the human defenders were fighting with all they were worth against the now bolstered bad blood ranks, during the lull when something had been going on over on the other side of the field Sela had taken the opportunity to go out and grab more masks and plasma casters from the fallen bad bloods, so now pretty much all of the humans were equipped with Yaujta technology.  
They had managed to get themselves propped between the rocks enough to defend from incoming shots while unleashing volley after volley down on the bad bloods, fortunately the masks allowed them to see through the cloaking technology so no more bad bloods had been able to get around them to attack them from the rear as they were swiftly cut down when they tried.  
But the sheer numbers of them advancing on the small group still had them pinned down in their trenches as they fought for their lives, it was all they could do to prevent any getting within melee range of their front lines, Sela could hear both Monty and Angel shouting orders to their defenders from behind her, but her attention was drawn to what was going on over on the other side of the field, she kept getting glimpses between the ranks of her father’s white armour between the masses, he seemed to be locked in combat with a particularly big bad blood female, she wondered if this was the one that she had seen on the ship before she and her brother were dropped here and if it was she was hoping that her father taught her the meaning of pain for what she’d done here.  
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Jack roared in pain as yet another rapid slash made it through his guard and connected with his body, it opened up yet another small wound on the right side of his left thigh, his body was now covered in an obscene amount of these small cuts and each and every one of them stung through the adrenaline that was coursing through his body, it was like she was trying to kill him with bug bites, but then it occurred to him that she really wasn’t trying to kill him and Jack realised that she was deadly serious about claiming him, suddenly her attack pattern made complete sense, she’d had loads of opportunities to land some hit that would have done some serious damage to him, but that wasn’t what she wanted, she wanted to bring him down, to fell him but leave him alive and unable to fight back, that’s why she was targeting his limbs and his extremities, both his arms and legs had a verity of cuts and slices all over them which weakened his ability to fight back and lowered his speed to a crawl, she really was going to try and kill his family in front of him while she did unspeakable things to him, his whole body sagged and his limbs felt like they were filled with lead, rather than attack again the bad blood queen began to circle him with her sword held over her shoulder, “What’s wrong Ack? Are you finally beginning to see the futility of your situation? Are you finally beginning to realise that you and me were destined to be together from the very beginning of all this? That it’s pointless to resist me as I always get what I want? Just think of all the great things we can accomplish together, two Nightmare Assassins bending this pitiful universe to our will and when we’re dead and gone our spirits will guide our beautiful offspring in ruling the whole thing while crushing those that stand against us” she said in that sickening purring voice again,   
“Not going to happen you sick fuck, there’s only one who holds my heart and she will hold it for as long as I live” Jack spat from behind his mask, the bad blood queen laughed but it swiftly turned into a snarl,   
“We shall see Ack and if I can’t have your heart then maybe I’ll just settle for your loins” she said pointing at a certain part of him with the tip of her sword, Jack felt an actual shiver of fear pass through him as images of what this vile creature had in store for him passed through his mind’s eye, he began to wonder if he should just give in to her, if he did maybe he’d be able to convince her to let his family go, but suddenly a peace like nothing he’d ever felt washed into his mind like warm waves of white light, it was accompanied by a honey sweet voice that he instantly recognised,   
“Be not afraid my beautiful Dream Warrior, remember those who depend on you, who believe in you, who need you, their strength is your strength, you have so many that care for you, that love you and this is something that this vile creature of darkness and Nightmare will never have, she believes only in fear and it is fear that will consume her, call on those that believe in you, they will come to you, make their strength your own just as your strength is theirs” Paya’s voice said in his head.  
Jack felt the peace of Paya’s voice washing through his mind and his heart taking with it his fears and his doubts, slowly he moved to where his large sword was laid and he leaned down and picked it up from its resting place and held it with its tip to the floor, he felt a small pressure on his right shoulder as he was joined by Boo the cat how was now stood on his shoulder ready to go into the breach with his friend again, his soft purr in his ear calmed his heart, Paya was right he simply had to remember and believe in those that believed in him, suddenly he felt compelled to close his eyes and as he did images of those he loved started to flash through his mind’s eye, first was his beautiful loving mate Tik, her happy smiling face warmed his heart, then there was his proud and strong daughter standing tall and fighting for everyone, followed by his amazing son battling oppression, then more and more began to join them as image after image flashed through his mind joining the growing crowd in his head, but little did Jack know what this was actually doing.  
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The bad blood queen circled her quarry slowly, she could feel the doubt and fear dripping off him now and it made her even more exited, she was going to relish taking his choice from him and to look into his eyes as he was taken and to watch him fall as finally he gave himself up willingly to her, then and only then would she show him the true power that he deserved, but suddenly as she watched him he seemed to go from exhausted to tranquil in a second, as she watched he stood up with his massive sword and placed the tip into the mud at his feet before closing his eyes, was he praying? She nearly laughed at this, it was going to take more than that limp wristed pitiful excuse for a goddess Paya to save him now, he was hers and she was never going to let go of him, but as she took a step towards him something strange happened, slowly the runes carved into his blade bean to glow.  
It started at the very tip of the massive blade and slowly travelled up the blade growing with intensity with every rune that it lit, finally it reached the hand guard where he held it and the glow seemed to reach into his very body and caused that white fire that surrounded him to billow like it was being fed by a gale force wind, he looked up at her and his eyes were glowing bright purple as was those of the small white cat on his shoulder, he began to speak in a voice that seemed to boom through her very soul and through her head, “Mae pob rhai sy'n yn credu mewn cariad a bywyd, dy was ostyngedig galwadau i chi yn awr, rhoi benthyg eich nerth i mi i drechu y creadur o farwolaeth, yn fy helpu i ddod â heddwch i'r bywyd hwn y gallwn gyd yn byw ynddo mewn heddwch a chariad” he said in a voice so powerful that it seemed to tear through her, she didn’t recognise the language so quick as a flash she opened her wrist comp and had it translate for her,   
‘All those who believe in love and life, your servant humbly calls you now, lend me your strength to defeat the creature of death, help me to bring peace to this life that we can all live in peace and love’ popped up on the screen with the word ‘Welsh’ at the bottom corner indicating what Ack was speaking,   
“Why the pauk is he speaking in Welsh?” she said in confusion looking at her wrist comp,   
“Because he’s calling to all those that believe in him in his old mother tongue” a voice from inside her head said, looking up she suddenly saw a whole sea of grey smoke swirling around Ack, spirits started popping up all around him, they were all shapes and sizes, from ancient ooman Celtic warriors that she remembered killing so many years ago, to Yaujta hunters from both the past and the present, to even small ooman and Yaujta children.   
As they joined the throng they immediately either placed a hand either on Ack himself or on someone already touching him forming a chain around him, as each one of them added to it the glow in the runes of his sword grew brighter and brighter, as did the white fire swirling around him to the point where it was actually painful to look at him, then as she watched tentacles of purple light arced out of him and seemed to connect him to the little throng of oomans fighting from the rocks,   
“Our, voices, hearts and minds are now one, you who would bring death, destruction and decay to everything and everyone we hold dear, now you will taste the righteous rage of the many, for now we stand together as one” Jack said in a voice that echoed with thousands of other voices all at once.  
As she watched in utter astonishment she realised that not only she could see this but her warriors could see it too, fear spread through their ranks like lightning and instantly they turned and began to flee trying to make it to the ropes that led out of the cave, “Stand and fight you pauking cowards!!” she roared at them causing some of them to hesitate, but as it turned out running had stopped being an option, as while they’d all been distracted by this spectacle a new threat had emerged sealing off the exit and their fates.  
The running bad blood warriors screeched to a halt as the front ranks saw what was at the bottom of the ropes blocking their escape, there was a young Yaujta male holding two single handed swords, but it wasn’t him that really got their attention, it was the three kiande amedha queens flanking him along with about forty odd heavily armed Yaujta warriors.  
Around them was the same purple glow that was surrounding Jack and all of those he seemed to have pulled into his collective, at this moment their auras were visible to all and the mass of bad blood warriors could see the mixture of purest white and red fires billowing around the group as it framed them against the back wall.  
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Ryan lifted one of his swords in the air above his head and let loose a mighty roar which was echoed by all of those in his group including his mother and his beloved Shena, not to mention the three queens, from the other side of the cave the battle cry was answered by a very familiar voice he instantly recognised to be his sister and the group of human defenders with her before finally being picked up by their father who now with the voice of the legion flowing through him seemed to shake the very foundation of the cave, at this spectacle the mass of bad bloods began full on panic.  
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Jack lifted his now glowing blade from the ground and lifted it so that the mighty blade pointed directly at the ceiling high above his head, “Lets finish this” he said in the voice of the legion, at his words Ryan’s group charged full tilt towards the bad bloods with the three queens leading the charge screeching as they went, they tore through the bad bloods front ranks like they were made of paper, claws and tails cutting whole groups in half sending blood and limbs flying in all directions as they charged, the various Yaujta flanking Ryan tore into the ones the queens missed and cut them down, from the other side Sela eleth and the humans jumped from the rocks and began unleashing barrage after barrage into their backs with their plasma casters, they were blowing their rear ranks apart with each volley, the queen of the bad bloods now trapped in the middle of this torrent of righteous fury looked around at the scene unfolding around her with panic beginning to fill her heart, as she turned to look at Jack she saw him pointing his blade at her and to her surprise she saw a small flash of white running at high speed down the very blade itself, before her mind had time to process what was happening a small bundle of sharp teeth and claws attached itself to her face.  
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Roaring in pain the bad blood queen tore the small cat from her face before he could do any real damage, but he did take some skin with him and threw him in frustration at one of the kiande amedha queens who was currently turning her warriors into paper with its massive claws and long tail, without missing a beat the queen simply caught the flying cat in mid-air and simply placed him on top her own head like some sort of living crown before continuing her onslaught, but venting her frustration on the little cat had proved rather costly as it had given Jack time to close the gap between them and now she was barely able to defend against the onslaught he unleashed on her, each swing was so powerful that it drove her backwards as they made impact with her own blade, the crash of metal on metal was deafening as Jack’s mighty sword hit hers with such force that it jarred her whole body, she tried to use her speed to outpace him and to get around him only to have him counter her perfectly and the impact of the backwards kick that he landed in her midriff knocked the very air out of her lungs, rolling backwards with the force of the kick she instantly sprang back to her feet and lunged her huge sword forwards in an attempt to spear him through the back, she was no longer fighting to claim him, she was fighting for her very life.  
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Jack saw the lunge coming a mile off, it was like the queen was moving in slow motion now, with the power of the legion flowing through him he could easily see what was coming, but he also saw something else that caught his attention, as the queen moved it was like there was an after shadow, like a ripple of something or someone else around her, it was only there for a split second but it was enough to catch his attention, deflecting the lunge along his blade an idea occurred to Jack, it was going to be very risky but it might be worth it.  
So as he deflected the blade he began to turn and at exactly the right moment he swung himself under the queen’s body and using his shoulder he picked her up from the ground and flipped her over himself and on her back, then before she was able to react he booted her massive sword away from her, she immediately pulled a dagger from a holster on her back but before she was able to use it Jack slammed one of his single handed swords through her shoulder effectively pinning her to the ground, the queen roared in pain as blood sprayed from around the blade through her shoulder, then before she was able to try and pull it free Jack dropped onto her midriff and straddled her, “So this was all foreplay ehh my love? I knew you’d come to your senses, but I never imagined you’d like it so rough” she said in a sickening voice looking up at him, but Jack could see the fear in her eyes as she looked into his glowing purple ones,   
“Lets see what’s in there shall we?” he said as he grabbed the side of her head in his hands,   
“What? No!! don’t you dare!! Don’t you know who your pauking with!!?” the queen yelled as she realised what he was about to do, desperately trying to throw him off but despite her protests Jack tightened his grip on her blood slicked head and forced his mind into hers, instantly their minds began to do battle for dominance as she tried with everything she had to resist his control, but with the power of the legion at his back and in her weakened state she was no match for him and Jack was able to force the connection to hold.  
Instantly Jack’s mind was flooded with years of pain anguish and torment, it was such a torrent of fear and pain that it threatened to shatter his mind, but as his mind began to waver and fracture he felt the power of the legion moving in to prop him up and to restore him, he knew that he had to endure this but it was like nothing he’d ever imagined possible, such depths of fear and of pain that it was surely impossible for one person to endure it all, but these weren’t the depths that the queen had inflicted oh no, these were the depths that the queen had endured.  
Suddenly it was all gone and Jack found himself standing in a black void of pure nothingness, all around him was completely empty, devoid of anything and everything, well all except for a young woman that was.  
Jack slowly walked towards the young Yaujta woman who was sat on the floor hugging her knees to her chest, as she saw him approach she shied from him, “How did you get in here? You shouldn’t be here, if he finds you here he will hurt me again” she said in a very frightened voice,  
“Who are you?” Jack asked as he slowly crouched down on his haunches next to the young Yaujta woman, she looked up at him slowly and he instantly saw the pain and fear in her mind, she shook her head and then put it back in between her knees, “I won’t hurt you, I promise” Jack said,   
“Liar!! Everyone hurts me!! Especially him, he promised me, he promised me that he could help me” the young woman screamed, Jack looked at her with confusion, but somehow he got the feeling that this woman was the key to everything here, so he decided to persist,   
“My name is Jack Mason” he said, she didn’t say anything but her eyes tracked his every movement, “May I sit down?” he asked pointing at the floor next to her, she looked really hesitant, but she nodded slowly, it was at this point that Jack noticed a small glimmer in her eyes, it was like the faintest flicker of hope, but it was so faint that it was barely perceivable, “So now you know my name can I know yours?” Jack asked as he sat down on the cold floor next to her, the young woman looked at him curiously,   
“Why do you care?” she asked,  
“I like to know who I’m speaking to; it makes things so much more personal when you know the name of the one your speaking to” Jack said, the young woman seemed very hesitant at this, but she also seemed to be considering it,   
“It’s h’chak” she replied quietly, Jack cocked his head curiously,  
“That means mercy in Yaujta doesn’t it?” he asked, she looked at him curiously,  
“Why does an ooman speak Yaujta?” she asked, Jack smiled broadly,  
“Kinda helps with communicating with my life mate, especially to know when she’s swearing at me and exactly what she’s calling me, helps me to gauge just how angry she is and how far to run” Jack said with a grin, this caused a brief smile to pass over h’chak’s face before disappearing again in to the sadness, but the flames of curiosity were in her eyes too now,   
“You’re mated with a Yaujta?” she asked, Jack nodded slowly,  
“Yes and she is my life, I’d fight the very universe itself just to see her smile and what make me smile is knowing that she’d do the very same for me, I’d be totally lost without her and our cubs, they are my heart’s strength” Jack said in a soft voice, h’chak looked totally surprised,  
“You had cubs with her? I didn’t think that it was possible for oomans and Yaujta to you know, breed” she said, Jack smiled broadly,  
“Neither did we, but it turned out it is possible and we were blessed with our two little miracles” Jack said, h’chak looked both happy and sad at the same time,   
“I wish I could have had cubs of my own, but no-one wanted me, I was too different, none of the males would look at me, they were all scared of me, all I wanted was someone to accept me, to hold me and tell me that I wasn’t bad or scary, then he came…….” h’chak said but as she reached the last part she clammed up,   
“Who is he?” Jack prodded, h’chak shook her head while hugging her knees tightly,  
“I can’t, he’ll hurt me so bad again” she said in a voice barely above a whisper, Jack smiled softly as he started to realise what was happening here,   
“He won’t hurt you while I’m here” Jack said, h’chak looked at him with tearful eyes,  
“He always hurts me, to keep me quiet while he does those horrible things to people, he always forces me to watch while he uses my body to do such horrible things” she said in her whisper quiet voice,   
“Well then why don’t you let me protect you?” Jack said, h’chak’s head snapped round to look him right in the eye, her eyes searched his for any traces of deceit but she couldn’t see any, “You’re a Dream Warrior aren’t you?” Jack asked, h’chak nodded slowly,   
“That’s why people were scared of me, because of the things I could do” she said, Jack nodded,  
“It means you can read minds, so here see for yourself, you’ll see I’m not lying to you” Jack said offering his hand to her, h’chak looked at his hand with curiosity burning bright in her eyes, but there was also a lot of fear in there too, she reached her hand out till it nearly touched his, but then at the last moment just before it touched she snatched it back and sat there shaking her head,  
“I can’t” she said bursting into tears again, Jack reached out and placed his hand on her broad shoulder which caused her to flinch, but not to pull away from him, this was obviously the first warmth of contact she had felt in a very long time and it was obvious that while she was terrified she didn’t want to lose it, she looked at him with tear streak eyes full of hope now,  
“Yes you can h’chak, you just have to believe in yourself and if you can’t believe in yourself, believe in me” Jack said softly, h’chak took a really deep breath as she steeled her nerves, there was something strong and powerful about this strange ooman that drew her to him, it was like he was emanating strength right into her very soul, she decided that she should trust him,  
“I can do this” she said in a shaking voice, then slowly she reached out her hand till it touched Jack’s, then as they touched he entwined his fingers with hers and her eyes changed.  
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With the aid of three kiande amedha queens, another battle hardened Dream Warrior and a whole host of pissed of Yaujta led by one seriously annoyed Tik eleth in full momma bear mode as she saw both her cubs in peril, the bad blood masses were being reduced to a pile of corpses rather swiftly.  
The three queens alone had reduced the bad blood masses to absolute panic and many had tried to surrender, but kiande amedha don’t take prisoners, none were spared and they were given the same level of mercy they had given their own quarries when they had dumped them here to be hunted, none.  
As Ryan fell the last of the bad blood warriors around him he turned and looked at the battle field, he could see his group stood victories on this field as the last of the bad bloods was felled by his Matriarch as he tried desperately to escape on the ropes, as he turned he could see no further combatants standing, raising one of his swords above his head he let loose a mighty roar of victory, this was swiftly taken up by his Matriarch and his allies all around him, even the queens and the strange little white creature that one of them had riding on her head leant their voices to the victory cry.  
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As soon as she heard Ryan’s voice from the far side of the cave roaring in victory she knew it was finally over, Sela eleth climbed up from her place between the rocks and raised her fist above her head and let loose a victory roar of her own, her ooman comrades all looked over the rocks, “Is it over?” Angel asked looking at the group of Yaujta over by the ropes, Sela eleth removed her mask and looked down at her with a massive grin, suddenly somebody yelled out in surprise,   
“Incoming!!” the voice roared, all the ooman guns turned to track the running target which was heading straight for them at top speed, as she heard plasma casters spinning up Sela eleth recognised the running figure,   
“DON’T SHOOT!!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, all of her ooman allies looked at each other and then at her in confusion, “Trust me if you value your arms attached to your shoulders and not torn off and rammed up your arse you really don’t want to be the one who shoot’s at my Matriarch” Sela eleth as she watched her mother charging towards her across the battle field at top speed.  
Tik eleth crashed right into her beloved daughter picking her right up of her feet in the tightest bear hug of her life, Tik eleth spun around happily on the spot holding her daughter to her body as she did, “Oh my beloved daughter it’s so good to see you again!!” she said happily into her daughter’s shoulder as she clung to her as if she was terrified that Sela was going to evaporate into a cloud of mist and be nothing more than illusion.  
Sela eleth clung to her mother’s muscular frame for all she was worth, “As it is you my Matriarch, I have missed you so greatly” she said her voice cracking and threatening to dissolve into tears of happiness.  
Tik eleth finally released her daughter and put her down on her feet in front of her and slowly stroked the side of her daughter’s face, Sela leaned into her mother’s touch and that was the final straw tears began to flow from her eyes which caused her mother to embrace her again, the two clung together again, “No one will take you from me again my beloved cub, this I swear to you” Tik said in a cracking voice as she held her young sobbing daughter tightly.  
As they watched this tearful mother daughter reunion more than one of the gathered humans felt themselves tearing up, but for them this reunion meant so much more, it meant that their collective nightmare was finally at an end, it meant that they were finally free.  
Suddenly out of the blue Sela eleth burst from her mother’s grip much to Tik eleth’s confusion, she searched her daughter’s face and saw a look of fear painted across it which instantly put her on her guard, “What is it my daughter?” Tik asked quickly,   
“Robert! I have to get Robert!” Sela eleth said before turning on her heels and charging off across the battle field and up towards a set of bombed out huts up on the other side of the rise, without even a second thought Tik eleth set of in hot pursuit of her daughter, she didn’t know who this Robert was, but he was obviously important to her daughter and that made him important to her too.  
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As the gathered humans watched the two Yaujta females race off across the battlefield in the direction of where Sela had originally been shooting from Millar stepped forwards next to Monty and Angel, “Damn easy to see where Sela gets her looks from” he said, Angel nodded and so did Monty,   
“So that’s Jack’s Alien wife, hell of a lot of woman right there” Monty said, all three nodded again,   
“You know I’m beginning to believe that Jack’s onto something here, I mean look at the way they fight for those who they love, there really must be something to this Yaujta love” Millar said, Angel snorted a laugh then she turned to look at him with a grin,   
“You thinking of switching sides on us boss?” she asked with a small laugh, he turned to look at her with a grin of his own,   
“Let me think about this, strong, powerful, loyal to the bitter end, would kill the universe to protect you and just to show their love for you, more muscles in places than I have places, trust me If I can land me a woman like that? Damn fucking straight” he said, Angel’s smile instantly evaporated,  
“You can’t be serious?” she said looking at him in shock, his grin widened,   
“Fucking deadly” he said, suddenly Cortez was stood next Millar’s shoulder,   
“I hear you there boss” he said, Angel’s jaw dropped even further open,   
“You think any of them would go for a mature gentleman?” Monty said rubbing his moustache, Millar laughed out loud,   
“Monty with your temper and the fire in you I think you’d fit right in” he said with a grin which caused the old Marine to laugh out loud,  
“Your all fucking nuts, I mean just look at them, there’s nothing beautiful about them!!” Angel exclaimed, Millar turned to Angel and planted a hand on her shoulder,   
“I never thought you were so shallow Angel, you might want to try and looking a little deeper and you know what they say?” Millar said,  
“No what do they say?” Angel said in a huff,  
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” Millar said patting her shoulder,  
“Well if it’s good enough for our resident Dream Warrior bad ass sniper slash swordsman over there, then it’s good enough for me and if there’s anything I’ve learned here it’s to keep an open mind” Cortez said,  
“Amen to that” both Monty and Millar said at the same time, Angel just shook her head, but as she looked up at the group of Yaujta some of which had made their way over to where the humans were she noticed a male dressed in bright crimson armour, he was carrying a giant war spear and was standing with the light framed behind him bouncing of his armour making crimson rays all around him and her heart leapt in her chest, he was striking,  
“This is not fucking possible” she said to herself quietly.  
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Amy sat cradling Robert’s head in her lap, he was still weak but he was at least awake now, the first thing he had said upon awakening was to ask both is Sela eleth was ok and to ask where she was, this had made Amy smile as she’d told him that she was ok and that she was fighting to protect them.   
She really couldn’t see much of the battle field from where they were hidden behind the burnt out hut, but the fact that the firing had stopped both worried her and at the same time gave her hope, hope that bloomed into full on joy as she saw Sela eleth and another bigger Yaujta woman appear over top of the rise and begin searching for them, “Sela we’re over here!” Amy called raising a hand so she could see them in their hiding spot, Sela eleth’s head instantly snapped towards them at the sound of her voice and she charged towards them with the other woman in tow.  
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As soon as she heard Amy’s voice call out to her Sela eleth ran full tilt towards them, her heart was pounding with fear the entire time, she was locked in a constant repeating prayer to Paya for Robert to be ok, as she dropped into the little dip that they had Amy had dragged him into to hide them she could see his eyes were open and he was looking at her, as soon as he saw her his soot covered face face broke into a smile and he tried to reach out for her, instantly she dropped into the dip and grabbed hold of his hand and held it tightly.  
“Thank God you’re ok” Robert said weakly,  
“God had nothing to do with it my love, it was you who saved me” Sela said holding his hand tightly, at Sela’s words Tik’s brow shot right up so that it showed above her mask,   
“My love?” she questioned in Yaujta looking at her daughter, Sela’s face instantly looked guilty and she smiled shyly,   
“Mother this is Robert, he is the one I have pledged my life and my love to” Sela said looking her mother right in the eye, or at least at the eye pieces of her hunting mask, Tik eleth slowly removed her hunting mask and looked her daughter right in the eye,   
“You have made your heart claim to him?” she asked, Sela shook her head,   
“Not yet as the bad bloods launched their cowardly attack before I was able to bring him before father and make my heart claim known” Sela said, Tik was about to reply when Robert groaned in pain and she looked down at him before kneeling down and inspecting the young ooman,   
“There will be time for that later my beloved daughter, he is quite badly wounded and we must treat his wounds immediately or he will not survive” Tik said in a quiet voice, tears instantly sprang into her daughter’s eyes which instantly showed her Matriarch the depths of her feelings for this young ooman and told her all she needed to know,   
“It’s all my fault my Matriarch, he was wounded saving me, the hut we were in was destroyed by the bad bloods, Robert used himself to shield me from the blast” she said as she knelt down and tenderly stoked the forehead of her wounded male, Tik clicked her mandibles in a soothing way,   
“It is not your fault my beloved daughter, you could have not predicted the bad blood’s cowardice, but anyone who is willing to potentially give up their life to protect one of my cubs has earned not only my gratitude but my respect, we will make him well again I give you my word and at that time you will make your heart claim for him in front of your entire clan as it should be” she said, Sela eleth smiled at her tearfully, then with that Tik tenderly scooped up the injured Robert in her large arms and turned to head back towards the oomans, straight away the little black skinned ooman was by her side holding onto Robert’s hand, it was obvious to Tik that he was important to her also and with both her and her daughter in tow she headed back down the rise.  
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The sheer torrents of pain and suffering that filled Jack’s head now nearly crippled him, the horrors that this poor woman had been forced to endure were beyond words, getting a second dose of this was horrific but Jack knew that he had to endure it if he was going to get to the bottom of this, on the other end of the scale h’chak was smiling blissfully as she experienced Jack’s life through his eyes, he swiftly realised this was because this seemed to be the only joy that she had experienced in her life and it wasn’t even hers, he felt such pity for her, as the events of her life unfolded before his eyes he began to understand her, she had been called h’chak by her parents because her mother had found out that she was barren, but somehow she’d been able to conceive her, so they believed that she was a gift given in mercy by Paya, hence the name, but all that happiness of her family swiftly faded when they found out that she was a Dream Warrior, rather than embrace her abilities and nurture them to make her into what she should have become it scared them and the others of her clan, so they shunned her and ostracised her from the clan, she became a pariah in her own home with no friends and no one even willing to look at her for fear that she would invade their minds and Dreams, Jack felt such mind crushing loneliness and emptiness that it reduced him to tears, she was like a ghost haunting the corners of her clan ship, keeping away from her peers for fear of their reprisals and hatred, but then a voice reached out to her in the darkness, as Jack listened to the sickly honey sweet voice promising her an end to her loneliness and the power to get revenge on all of those who had hurt and shamed her this scared and lonely young woman began to listen, this voice swiftly became her only friend, the only one who would even give her the time of day, so with no-one to guide her and no one to show her the right she took the deal and instantly regretted it as she became a prisoner in her own mind as something more powerful and far darker than she could have ever believed possible took up residence in her body and began using her powers to its own end while forcing her to watch as it used her gifts to unleash such unbelievable horrors.  
The dark horror did live up to its end of the bargain, it had promised revenge on all of those who had hurt her and it delivered alright, it literally tore her entire clan apart using her powers, she was forced to watch as the creature now wearing her skin tore her family apart with its bare hands and cut a swath of blood and fury through her clan ship, enslaving any that were too scared to try and fight her and destroying any who did, it was only now that Jack fully understood, he saw who it was that had control of her and it was up to him to free her.  
As their bond severed h’chak’s hand trailed in the air as if trying to recapture the happy memories that she’d experienced in Jack’s head, “You’ve had such a hard but happy life” she said sadly, without saying a word Jack moved over to her side and wrapped his arms arund the Yaujta female and pulled her into a hug, the intimate contact surprised the young woman and she stiffened under his touch,   
I’m so so sorry that you had to endure such cruelty, no one should have to go through such things especially at the hands of those that are supposed to love them” he said quietly, from having seen his memories and seen how he was she knew that he was sincere in his words, this was the most kindness she’d seen in such a long time that it broke her, she threw her arms around the ooman Dream Warrior and clung to him as tears and sobs cascaded from her,   
“It’s ok now, I’m here and I’m going to help you, together we’re going to get this evil out of you and you’re going to have your life back” Jack said softly, h’chak looked at him with panic filled tearful eyes,   
“I-I-I-I Can’t he’s too powerful!” she stammered, Jack had felt that the power this entity wielded but he’d also felt something else when the two had joined and now he planned to exploit it, he smiled at her broadly and winked at her,   
“Leave it to me I got this” he said, she looked confused as he realised her and stood up leaving her arms hanging in the air still craving the touch of another that she had been denied in so very long, he stood up and walked a few paces into the dark but her eyes never lost sight of him as light seemed to pour off him like an ooman light bulb, “Loki!!!! Get your arse out here where I can see you coward, I challenge you to single combat!!” Jack yelled into the darkness, suddenly a booming noise that was definitely laughter echoed around in the dark bouncing off unseen surfaces,   
“You dare to challenge a god mortal?” a voice said in the dark,   
“Oh I dare alright” Jack said with a smile into the dark,  
“You know I have to admit that I am actually rather impressed by you mortal, I mean not only did you manage to defeat this rather piss poor specimen of a Yaujta here, but you managed to infiltrate hear head as well, I think I would be better off possessing you as you a far better specimen” the voice said with such sheer contempt for h’chak after all he’d done to her that it made Jack sick to his stomach, but he couldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of his plan, he’d only get one shot at this and he had to get it right or it could mean h’chak’s life,   
“Well then how about this, you face off against me in one on one combat, if I win you’ll leave this woman be and go back to where ever the fuck you came from” Jack said,  
“And if I win?” Loki’s voice asked curiously,  
“Then I’ll give myself up without a fight and we will join willingly” Jack said,   
“Ack no!! he’ll destroy you!!” h’chak yelled at him but when he turned to look at her he was smiling and he winked at her, she quickly silenced herself having his memories fresh in her mind she knew this ooman symbol well, he had a plan.  
Loki’s voice boomed in laughter again, “I’m impressed by you confidence mortal, you honestly think you can defeat a god?” he asked,  
“I don’t think I know I can” Jack said, suddenly a shape took form in the darkness, it was that of a man wearing golden crested plate armour carrying a sceptre with a large horned helmet,   
“Very well mortal we shall see what you made of” he said squaring off against Jack who remained motionless,   
“You want to know something Loki?” Jack said,  
“What’s that then mortal?” Loki asked looking at him curiously, he really didn’t like this mortal’s arrogant body language and demeanour and he couldn’t wait to show him his place,   
“You really aren’t that smart for a so called god” Jack said, Loki laughed out loud,  
“Oh really mortal? And why is that?” he said with a rather amused expression,   
“Because if I can see you and I know where you are, so do my friends” Jack said, Loki looked confused,  
“What are you talking about mortal?” he asked his temper flaring,  
“Now!!” Jack yelled and like a torrential river spirits and souls poured out of him, a gale of grey smoke poured out of Jack’s body before surrounding the stunned god, as they materialised they seized hold of him before he could fade back into the darkness.  
“What is the meaning of this release me!!” Loki yelled as the spirits gripped hold of him, Jack walked towards the now restrained god,   
“Not so easy to escape them is it?” he asked looking into Loki’s hate filled eyes,   
“I-I-I-I can’t move! That’s impossible there’s no way mere spirits can do this to me! I am a god!!” Loki stammered and yelled as he struggled futility against the mass of spirits holding him in place,   
“Want to know one of the things that I’ve learned from being a Dream Warrior Loki?” Jack asked as he leaned forwards to look the rather irate god right in the face,   
“Oh and what pearl of wisdom are you going to bestow on me mortal?” Loki spat,   
“While spirits can give vitality and energy to those they favour, they can also do the reverse to those they despise, all they needed was my help to get this close to you, so you see I needed them to give me the strength to penetrate your defences and to get in here and they needed me to be able to gain access so that they could get at you, so it was a mutually beneficial arrangement” Jack said, Loki simply snarled at him but then a cocky smile returned to his face,   
“So what now mortal? Are you going to exorcise me from that pitiful excuse of a fallen Yaujta Dream Warrior? I don’t think so you are no god and no matter how many spirits you have in your so called army you simply don’t have the power to achieve that, so where does that leave us? Back at square one” Loki said smiling the whole time, now it was Jack’s turn to smile, but this was a smile of pure darkness that made even the trickster god nervous,   
“Oh no I’m not going to exorcise you, I’ll leave that to one who has more power than me in that area, but first we’re going to teach you something” Jack said,   
“Oh and what would that be?” Loki asked in a much more nervous sounding voice,   
“The nature of mortality” Jack said.  
Loki looked rather confused now, “You can’t teach a god how to be mortal, human” he almost laughed as he said it, Jack grinned,   
“Wanna bet? I might not be able to kill you which believe me when I say it would give me great pleasure, but what we can do is show you what it feels like” Jack said, Loki looked rather worried now,   
“What?” he asked looking almost scared now,   
“Every death you caused, every gram of pain you made others endure you are now going to feel it in its entirety, raw and unfiltered, you are going to see what fear is god and you are going to know it’s effect” Jack said,   
“Impossible, there’s no way you can pull off such a thing” Loki spat nervously, Jack’s grin grew darker,   
“Oh I am not going to be the one to show you, she is” Jack said pointing at h’chak who was now standing behind him, “You made her endure the worst humiliations possible and you used her body to joy ride around the universe inflicting pain and suffering on millions just to get your kicks, well now she’s going to show you just what it feels like to be on the receiving end of it and I’m going to help her” Jack said.  
Emboldened by the powerful ooman Dream Warrior standing by her side now h’chak stepped forwards, she glanced at Ack, he nodded with a smile that was gentle for her, then she looked at the Loki, the man who had made her suffer so much pain, so much humiliation and so much sadness and fear, now it was her turn and she felt her rage boiling up inside her, she lunged forwards and she grabbed the sides of Loki’s head, instantly she felt Ac’s hands on her shoulders and she felt the power of the ooman Dream Warrior and all the spirits joined with him flow into her, she never felt power like it, it felt like she could do anything.  
“N-N-N-No you can’t!!!” Loki roared trying to shake his head out of h’chak’s grip but as he looked up at her he saw her eyes change, they were now glowing purple the same as the human Dream Warrior behind her,   
“Take it god, take the pain you inflicted and own it!!!!” both Jack and h’chak roared in perfect unison and using Jack’s power and connection to all the spirits around him she forced the entirety of the feeling and experiences of both herself and all those around her into Loki’s mind.  
The trickster god screamed in agony as he was forced to experience the pain and anguish of all those around him in raw unfiltered detail, it was far more than one mind even that of a god could handle and it broke him, the sheer intensity of all that fear, all that pain, all that horror and darkness reduced Loki to a gibbering wreak and all of those connected felt his mind break.  
As it did Jack and h’chak released the connection and disengaged from him, as did all of the spirits holding him, there was no need of their restraint now as the trickster god slumped to the floor where he continued to gibber incoherently, h’chak turned to face jack holding her hands up and looking at them, “We did it, I’m free!!” she said, Jack nodded and grinned, in a flash she threw her arms around his shoulders and clung to him,   
“Thank you” she said in a breaking voice,   
“You’re most welcome but it was your power that did it, all you needed was some good friends to help prop you up when you needed it” Jack said gesturing around him to all the smiling spirits around them,   
“Friends?” she said like it was an alien word, Jack nodded,   
“All of us here know that what your body did to them you had no part in, you were as much a prisoner as they were, so they don’t hold you responsible and neither do I” Jack said, h’chak’s eyes widened,   
“Really?” she said, he nodded,  
“And don’t worry when we’ve pulled that fucking festering boil out of your head I’ll explain to the others what happened here” Jack said,  
“B-B-B-But what if they still hate me?” h’chak stammered her fear rising, Jack smiled and tightened his grip on the wavering female,   
“Then they can answer to me and I’ll show then just what happened here like only one of our kind can” he said,  
“Y-Y-Y-You’d do that? For me?” she stmmered, Jack nodded,  
“That’s what friends are for, they are the ones that stand by our sides no matter the odds and prop us up no matter what” Jack said and as he did the gathered spirits all closed around them and h’chak felt them all laying hands on her, in a massive rush she felt their emotions pouring into her and it brought tears back to her eyes,   
“Thank you, all of you” she said as she sobbed into Jack’s chest.  
After releasing h’chak from their embrace there was only one thing left for Jack to do, “Hey Paya!! Get your sparkly arse down here, we got something that belongs to you” he yelled into the darkness, from no-where a sound of sweet giggling came floating to them,   
“And how would you know that my arse is sparkly Jack? I don’t think a certain female Yaujta up there who’s currently pacing a hole in the cave floor would appreciate it if she knew you were admiring my rear so closely” a honey sweet voice said,  
“Ha bloody ha and no your right she wouldn’t, I’d either get my dick ripped off and beaten with it or have to endure weeks of her pouring glitter on her arse and asking me if it’s sparkly enough for me now” Jack said putting a hand on his hip, the high pitched laughter sounded again and out of the darkness a white light poured forth, Paya appeared with two companions at her sides,  
“Every woman has her insecurities Jack, even if she knows just how much you love her and how you’d never even dream of looking at another female in that way” she said smiling broadly, Jack sighed and the smiled,   
“Well then I guess that’ll I’ll just have to prove to her how I’d choose her over a goddess any day of the week then won’t I?” he said with a sly smile which caused Paya to laugh again.  
It was only now that Jack even looked at her two companions, “Ah let me do the introductions, this here is Angus og and this fine fellow is Gwydion, they are here to help me escort this festering boil as you so aptly described him back to Asgard” Paya said as her two companions headed over to the still gibbering Loki and hoisted him to his feet, he was totally unaware of what was happening to him and all Jack could see in his eyes was nothingness,   
“Wished we’d had the idea to lock him inside his own mind centuries ago” Gwydion said as he looked at the gibbering trickster god, then Paya turned to h’chak who was hiding behind Jack in the presence of her goddess,   
“Step forth my child there is no need to be afraid, you will not be harmed” she said, h’chak looked up at Jack for support and he simply smiled at her and nodded, slowly she stepped out from behind him and into her goddess’s presence,   
“I am so sorry for what he’s done to you my sweet sweet daughter, but know this while I cannot erase the stain that he has marked your soul with I can give you back the years that he has stolen, I will erase every scar and every wound that you suffered while under his control, you will have your life back and this time it will be your to lead” Paya said, instantly h’chak fell to her knees in front of the goddess and wept,   
“Thank you!! Oh bless you Paya thank you!!” she said as the smiling goddess walked up to her and placed her hands on her shoulders before lifting her to her feet,   
“If I might make a suggestion?” Paya said to her,   
“Anything” h’chak said quickly,   
“Stick close to this ooman, let him be your strength when you need it, when he said he was your friend he meant it and I know this ooman well, if you have got him to say something like that, he pauking well means it, so let him guide you, accompany him on his path and I know that you will be rewarded with that which you so desperately seek, and who knows? If you walk that path with him, you might just very well find a strong ooman of your own to show you the same love that he shows his beloved Tik eleth every single day” Paya said with a smile and a wink, h’chak flushed bright crimson, Paya smiled broadly at this,  
“You can’t hide these things from a goddess remember?” she said with another wink, then she turned to her companions, “Right lets get him back to Odin, I’m sure he’s going to have something to say about all this” she said, but before they departed she turned and smiled once more at Jack,   
“Better get back to that beloved female of your Jack or she’s going to end up on the other side of the planet” she said, then with a flash all of them were gone.  
Jack turned to h’chak, “So you ready to go back to having a life again?” he asked, she smiled at him broadly,   
“More than ready” she said, he grinned at her,   
“So what are we waiting for?” he said and with that everything around them began to fade.  
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Tik eleth was pacing furiously back and forth next to the prone body of the bad blood queen and her beloved Ack, after she had handed Robert over to his ooman brethren and they had stabilised him she had made her way back here, Ack and the bad blood queen were still locked together with him straddling her and gripping the sides of her head, usually this Dream Warrior stuff was over in a flash, but it felt to her like they’d been in there hours, her frustrations grew to the point where she was ready to rip the arms of the next person who asked her if she was alright, suddenly her beloved Ack drew a massive breath and his eyes returned from the glowing purple to their usual brilliant blue and he coughed a few times, in a split second she had him up off that vile woman and in her arms where he belonged, her eyes searched his franticly to make sure that it was still her Ack that she was holding, suddenly a huge smile passed over his face as his eyes swam into focus and he saw her,   
“It’s over my love, it’s finally over” he said softly before being drowned in kisses and nearly squeezed to death.


	45. Allegiance

‘Ladies and gentlemen it’s with a powerful mixture of emotions that I announce that this is the very last chapter of Hunter Hunted. But don’t feel down or despair Tik and Jack fans, I have no intention of letting their story die, I have grown to love these two like they were members of my own family and I have no intention of letting them fade into the darkness, there is still so much more to be said and I need to say it, but I feel that Hunter Hunted has hit its climax and this is the longest chapter I have ever written in one sitting as I wanted to try and tie up each of the mini stories as best I could, but don’t worry I am already planning out the sequel in the future, this is only going to be part one of a much larger story as I am sure you’d all love to see how the Yaujta love revolution goes right?  
It’s been a long and wonderful road getting here and I would like to extend a very personal and deep thank you to each and every one of you, to all of those who messaged me with your ideas, who commented or reviewed, to those who just read and enjoyed this little fable of mine, to all of you I say a very heart felt thank you.  
So let’s go out with a bang people, for the last time in Hunter Hunted this is GhostNobody signing off and saying, on with the show…….’  
Chapter 45: Allegiance.  
As she released her beloved Ack from her embrace Tik eleth turned her attentions to the vile female that had been the cause of all their pain, the one who had taken her beloved cubs from her and threatened their very lives, putting in motion this chain of events that had led them here to this, she started to walk towards the female as she laid on her back defeated, “I am going to finish this once and for all, you will never threaten my or anybody else’s cubs ever again!!” she said in a dark voice, but before she could raise her arm to strike the final blow she felt a vice like grip grab her arm and pull it back, as she looked to see who was crazy enough to stop her from ending this vile creature she was shocked to see it was her beloved Ack.  
“Don’t!! It wasn’t her fault” Ack said in a stern voice, Tik looked at him like he’d gone crazy, but before she could remind him about what they’d just been through a light surrounded the defeated bad blood queen, as they and everyone else gathered turned to look what appeared to be black smoke in the form of a screaming human figure was ripped from her very body, then the bad blood queen floated off the floor a foot before dangling lifeless,   
“As promised my sweet sweet daughter, I restore to you that which was cruelly taken from you by the vile trickster god, your life and your vitality” a honey sweet voice floated through the air and heard by everyone present, suddenly the white light surrounded the bad blood queen and roared around her like billowing white fire, it reminded Tik eleth of the aura that surrounded her beloved Ack when she’d seen what he looked like through his eyes.  
In a bright flash the female that was left floating momentarily before being laid back on the floor gently changed, gone were the scars and wounds, gone was the black and vile tint to her skin, now replaced with a light brown and black pattern, gone was the blood red of her eyes and now replaced with a pale green colour, in fact the now much younger female that was laid on the floor was vastly different from the one that had been there only seconds ago, but the looks were almost the same, just much prettier than she’d been a second ago.  
As Tik watched in utter shock and surprise Ack walked over to the prone female and offered her a hand to get to her feet which she accepted, gently Ack pulled her to her feet and the now young female looked around herself at the watching observers, gone was the look of malice, now replaced with a look of fear and nervousness, “It’s ok h’chak, you don’t have to be afraid, no one here will hurt you and if they try they’re going to have to go through me first” Ack said in a voice loud enough that everyone gathered heard his words.  
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Now emboldened by having her powerful ooman protector by her side h’chak stood up straight to her full nine feet height and looked around the group again, there were very mixed emotions in the group around her, some of malice, but mostly confusion.  
The female Yaujta who she recognised to be Ack’s life mate approached them looking first at her, then at her beloved Ack then at her again, there was confusion painted all over her face, “What is happening Ack?” she asked slowly, the powerful ooman Dream Warrior turned to face her,   
“It wasn’t her my beloved, her body was possessed by the vile trickster god Loki, the woman we saw do all those vile things was not the one you see before you, he possessed her and used her powers to his own advantage while joy riding around in her body, leaving her a prisoner in her own mind, able to see hear and feel everything but unable to do a damn thing about any of it, what you just saw was Paya extracting the vile one from her soul and restoring h’chak back to the way she was before he got his claws on her” Ack said, Tik eleth’s mandibles dropped open.  
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“That’s horrible, I can’t imagine the pain you must have seen and felt” she said with genuine sympathy in her voice, h’chak looked at her humbly,   
“I never want anyone to be hurt on my expense again, I have witnessed pain beyond measure and for what it is worth I am so very sorry for what he did to you and your beloved cubs while in my skin” h’chak said in a nervous voice as she faced the mighty huntress and clan Matriarch, Tik’s expression softened as she saw the genuine remorse and pain in the female’s eyes, slowly she reached up and placed a large hand on her shoulder, instantly she felt h’chak flinch at her touch and she saw the fear in her eyes, she also saw her eyes flick to Ack who was now designated as her protector and she knew that this gentle woman would have never done those horrid things, she glanced at Ack and she saw him nod and smile, she returned it and then turned to face the mixed group of oomans, Yaujta and kiande amedha,   
“This female is not to be harmed, she is now a member of clan Mason and she is under our protection, if any should feel that they have the right to claim vengeance against her for the horrible crimes that she committed not of her own free will, then they will answer to us!!” Tik roared in a mighty voice that boomed off the very walls of the cave, as she did she felt Ack move up to her side and stood proudly beside her, then she saw four figures heading from the crowd towards her, it was her beloved cub Ryan and his three kiande amedha queens, straight away he joined his parents and his father patted him lovingly on the shoulder drawing a smile between the two Dream Warriors, the small group was flanked protectively by the queens, one still wearing her fierce looking Boo crown, the small but very powerful group was collected around h’chak who stood in the middle as they turned to face the larger one and both groups stood ready, there was a lot of confusion amongst the much larger group.  
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Finally, it was Jack’s old friend Millar that stepped forwards from the ranks, “What’s happening here Jack? One minute she’s our sworn enemy and now she’s your friend and you claim her as part of your clan?” he asked, his question resonated amongst the larger group and they all stood nodding their heads and looking at each other, rather than answer him he glanced at both Ryan and h’chak and smiled at both of them, having spent time in his head both knew that smile meant that he had a plan, so when he stepped forwards both of them followed and stood at his shoulders,  
“I know this is confusing for all of you and hell I’d be confused as hell in your shoes, so rather than try and explain this royal cluster fuck to you I have something else in mind, with the aid of my two other Dream Warriors here I’m just going to show you” Jack said, with that his eyes switched from their usual brilliant blue to that amazing bright purple, instantly Ryan and h’chak knew what to do and they both grabbed an arm each as he raised them level with his chest, instantly both of their eyes glowed purple as well and bolts of energy shot from all three, they hit every single living being here causing their eyes to change and match those of the Dream Warriors to whom they were now connected to, “Brace yourselves everyone this ride is not going to be a fun one” Jack said, with that he pooled both his and h’chak’s memories together and broadcast them to everyone here.  
There was a stunned silence as each and every living being here including one little white warrior cat and the three queens were locked into Jack’s and h’chak’s memories, they relived every second of the living hell that Loki had put her through right up to where Jack had defeated him by unleashing the horde on him and allowing her to send the pain of the legion into his mind, after it was over the three Dream Warriors released their hold on the group and as they scanned the gathered faces there was not a dry eye in sight, even the queens and Boo seemed effected by the unrelenting trauma that had been inflicted on h’chak.  
Suddenly there was not one expression of hate or of malice among them, only pity and sorrow for what the innocent Dream Warrior had been tricked into doing, all for the want of a friend, of someone to care about her, again it was Millar was the first to move, slowly he walked up to the large Yaujta female and he reached up and placed a hand on her arm, all the time under the cautious gaze of Jack, she flinched instantly, still not used to being touched, but his touch was not one of malice, but one of soft sympathy, “I am so so sorry for what I said, I had no idea of the hell he put you through, can you ever forgive me?” Millar asked in a soft voice, h’chak’s face cracked into a large smile,   
“If you can forgive me for what I did while at his hands” h’chak said deliberately avoiding using Loki’s name, Millar smiled at the large female, who was a hell of a lot better looking since Paya had restored her,   
“There’s nothing to forgive” he said softly, then slowly others from the group walked up to her and each and every one of them one at a time placed a hand on her, even the three queens joined in, while Boo just jumped from the queen’s head for the first time since he’d become her living crown, he landed on her shoulder and nuzzled her face affectionately, it was too much for h’chak, she was not used to such kindness and such sympathy, tears started to flow down her face, her teared eyes searched for Jack and she saw him with Tik eleth leaning on his shoulders with her arms draped around her beloved male from behind, both were smiling at her brightly, never in her life had h’chak ever dreamed that such love and such happiness was possible in this life, especially from a group of strangers half of them who weren’t even her own species, she’d never been so happy in her life.  
After the mini love-fest was over the whole group turned to face Jack again and again it was Millar who stepped forwards, it seemed that he seemed to have become the official spokesperson for the group as a whole, “So what now boss?” he asked looking Jack in the eyes, Jack grinned broadly,   
“Damn you haven’t called me that in years” he said with a smile, Millar grinned right back,   
“Seemed appropriate since it was once again you that led the charge that pulled everyone’s arse out of the fire, you might have become some kinda alien spirit warrior who talks to the dead and fallen in love with a seriously kick ass huntress who looks like she would tear the universe in half with her bare hands for her family, but once a bad ass always a bad ass boss” Millar said with a grin as his vision flicked from Jack to Tik and back again, Tik eleth clicked approvingly,   
“This ooman has good eyes, he is wise and he knows a true huntress when he sees one, I think one of my kind will seek to claim him rather quickly” Tik said to Jack in Yaujta, Jack laughed and then glanced at his beloved life mate,   
“Thinking of playing a Yaujta cupid eh my love?” he replied in Yaujta, Tik cocked her head curiously,   
“What is a cupid?” she asked, Jack grinned,  
“In my culture they are Angels of love, they strive to spread love and match make, though I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one trying to pair off Yaujta and humans before” he said with a grin, Tik smiled broadly,   
“I don’t think I will need to be a cupid, there are already a few admiring eyes on him” she said nodding her head in Millar’s direction but not directly at him, Jack followed her gaze and he saw three Yaujta females all staring at the back of Millar’s brown haired head with doe like eyes, to Jack total surprise one of which was h’chak, he laughed out loud,   
“Oh god he’s in for a treat when he discovers the joys of Yaujta courtship” he said grinning, this made Tik click her mandibles in that sensual way that Jack loved, it was such a delightfully soft noise, he glanced at her,   
“I think I’ve earned some ooman love of my own” she purred in a soft tone, while stroking his shoulder and his arm seductively, Jack smiled broadly,   
“Definitely when we get some privacy my love, I think after all this we’ve definitely earned some alone time, just me, you and a broken bed” he said stroking her hand softly,   
“A broken bed?” she asked confused, Jack smiled softly,   
“Or at least it will be when we’re done” Jack said smiling, this caused Tik to purr softly, she had desperately missed the touch and passionate embrace of her male, they had been apart for too long and her body was aching for him, it really didn’t help that all the combat had really fired her up, it was taking all of her strength to restrain herself from grabbing her beloved ooman throwing him over her shoulder and making a bee line for their quarters aboard the ship, suddenly a voice snapped them out of the happy bubble they had gone into,   
“Errr you guys know half the group speak Yaujta right?” Ryan’s voice said suddenly from their left, both of them snapped to look at him as he stood there with Shena, both of them were blushing slightly, though while Ryan looked mortified Shena was smiling rather too broadly, then both of them looked at the group, the Yaujta’s all looked like they were all about to have a collective aneurism at the obvious feelings and passion between these two, as they’re eyes snapped to the group each and every Yaujta’s eyes suddenly needed to be looking at something else, but this seemed to subconsciously draw their eyes to the ooman that had caught their attentions.  
“Err you guys were talking about me weren’t you? Or at least you were until you two went off into that happy bubble you both went to at the end there” Millar said drawing both of their attentions onto him again, Tik smiled sheepishly and Jack grinned,   
“Oh it was nothing bad I promise you, I just coulda sworn I saw a Yaujta shaped cupid floating around your head” Jack said smiling, Millar looked confused and he actually looked up as if to look for the said Yaujta shaped cupid, this caused Tik to chuckle in that delightful way that always made Jack happy, but now while his confused friend was looking for invisible alien angels it was time for more serious matters to be attended to.  
Just before Jack was able to address the whole group a familiar voice from behind him squealed in absolute glee, both him and Tik turned to look just as Grace and the other civilians emerged to join the warrior group, “Oooooh my god there are so many of them!! This is awesome!!” she said as she bounced into the middle of the group quickly observing each Yaujta closely before moving onto the next, then she froze solid as her eyes locked on to the three queens flanking Ryan, she shot straight towards them and started circling them, “Holy shit and I never in a billion years imagines I’d ever get to see one of these up close!!” she yelled excitedly, behind her Sela eleth was supporting a limping but now patched up and on his feet Robert, with her was Amy who was holding up his other side, as soon as he saw his owner Boo the warrior cat detached himself from the queen’s head that he’d clambered back up onto after he’d left h’chak’s shoulder, he sprinted right to her jumping into her arms with a joy filled meow to see his beloved owner safe and sound, the queen who had become the surrogate caretaker of the little cat slowly approached the small child who looked up at her with a mixture of fear and awe on her face,  
“Wow you’re huge!!” Amy said quietly, slowly the queen reached down and plucked Amy from the ground with Boo on her shoulder before placing them both protectively on her own shoulder.  
Jack smiled broadly at this little spectacle, he would have never imagined that an alliance let alone a friendship would have been possible with their kind, but thanks to his amazing son, it was not only possible it was a reality, as he watched the mighty queen displaying the most amazing tenderness with the young child and her fearsome warrior cat it was an amazing spectacle to behold.  
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As she stroked the human hatchling’s soft skin her sisters slowly approached her, “You seem to have become rather attached to their kind sister” one of them said telepathically to her, she turned and smiled at her in their way,   
“They are fascinating creatures, I feel such pity that so many of our kind has killed so many of theirs in our birthings, if only they knew what our hosts really meant to us, that connection that we felt before we were forced to take their lives for our own, sisters I swear to you now that if I ever have a hive of my own again, none of my offspring will be born of either of their species, we owe them too much to put them through such pain ever again” she said back telepathically, her other sister snickered softly, but it wasn’t a laugh of malice or of jest, but one of merriment at the fact that she’d just reached that exact same conclusion herself, then her second sister who had spoken first turned to her again,   
“Well if you are thinking of making one of those human’s your king you are going to have to be quick, I think they are quickly being picked out by the female hunters from what I am seeing here” she said, the three of them observed the group and they could clearly see the amorous thoughts and looks from the Yaujta females being aimed at various human males in the large group, as she tickled the young hatchling on her shoulder the young one giggled in such a delightful voice,   
“You know, I think I just might try that, a human king, so small and so fragile, but at the same time so powerful and fierce and packed with passion, now that would really be an interesting experience wouldn’t it?” she asked looking at her sisters, they both smiled,   
“I think he’d have to be pretty open minded to want to choose one of our kind for a mate” one of them said, the three of them smiled at each other,   
“But it’d be a hell of a challenge wouldn’t it? Think of the joy of managing to woo one of their kind away from females of their own kind and on to ours” the first queen said with a broad smile,  
“And just think of the joy we could bring to their lives just as they have brought to ours” the second queen said softly before the three of them turned to observe the group again, but this time each of them had silently joined the Yaujta in selecting a prospective human mate for themselves.  
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Jack decided that this was the perfect time to address the whole group as they were all gathered here, “Alright everyone listen up its decision time” he said in a loud voice, instantly everyone in the group turned to face him, “I don’t know about you but I am seriously ready to get the fuck off this rock and head home, but each of you is going to have to make a serious decision here, I know the Yaujta gathered here have already made the decision to leave your clan and for standing with my beloved son and life mate you are already part of our clan” Jack said in both English and then repeating it in perfect Yaujta, this made all of the gathered Yaujta smile before they all looked at each other and gathered into a group salute to their new clan leaders, both Jack and Tik smiled at each other at this, then he turned to address both the humans and the queens,   
“But for the rest of you this is the choice I offer you, we can take you back to Earth and we’ll drop you off, you can go back to any family you might have and try and make the best of the rest of your lives, but I warn you, you’ll never be able to tell a soul about any of this, not if you don’t want to end up in an asylum or a pariah from your families, you’ll have to keep these experiences locked up in that dark place in your mind never giving them a true voice” Jack said, the gathered humans talked this over amongst themselves in excited voices, Jack noticed that rather a few of the gathered Yaujta were looking nervous at this, then Millar turned to look at Jack,   
“What’s behind door number two then boss?” he asked, Jack grinned broadly,   
“You open your minds and come with us and become part of our clan, we take you back to our home world and you get to start a new life with people who understand you and what you’ve been through, you’ll be a part of a new family, one that understand you and will look out for you no matter what, the Mason clan protects its own no matter what the odds, we stand together, we fight together and we’ll die together, so I offer you the choice, join us and stand with us and have a new life, I can’t say it’s be easy you’ll have to start from scratch on an alien world, you’ll have to build your life with your own two hands, there might be problems and you might be called on to defend your new family from any and all that would threaten our way of life, but know that you will have us all standing by your side to lift you when to fall and to prop you when you need support and who knows? You might just find the part of your life that you always felt was missing” Jack said as he reached up and stroked the side of his beloved life mate’s face at that last part, at his words Tik leaned on his shoulders again as she looked over his head at the group as she purred softly at his welcome touch.   
Both Ryan and Shena nodded at each other and went to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tik and Jack, this was followed suite by Sela and Robert on the other side, together they struck an impressive image for all those watching.  
Instantly the Yaujta in the group all walked forwards to join their new clan leaders in a show of unity, Jack smiled and welcomed each one individually as they presented themselves to their new clan Patriarch, then after the last one joined and stood shoulder to shoulder with their new clan they turned to face the gathered oomans, next to move were the three queens, the one who was carrying Amy and Boo stopped in front of Jack and lowered herself till she was face to face with him, slowly she reached out a large hand and placed it on the side of Jack’s face and he did the same, in his head he heard a rather feminine voice, “Is there a place for our kind in your clan God slayer?” she asked, Jack smiled and replied telepathically to her,   
“You are very welcome among us, you fought for my son and you earned his trust and I trust him, so you have my trust as well as my thanks, we would be honoured to accept you into our family if that is what you wish” he replied, the queen hissed happily, then she looked almost embarrassed and she felt the other two prodding her to ask the next question,   
“Would it be ok if myself and my sisters were to choose……….” She began but her embarrassment got the better of her and she trailed off, she felt her sisters prodding her again,   
“Choose what?” Jack probed,   
“To choose a mate from among you ranks, preferably a human” she said so quickly the question was almost fired into Jack’s mind, he looked surprised at first but then a large smile crossed his face,   
“Looking for a human king are you?” he asked, she looked embarrassed again but then nodded silently, his smile broadened,   
“We do not oppress love of any kind my good queen, I mean just look at myself for your example, I am a human with a Yaujta huntress for a life mate and two half Yaujta half human children, I’d be a spectacular hypocrite if I forbade your love based solely on the fact that you are a different species from your chosen one, so if you fall for a human and they return your feelings then you will be accepted as a couple as much as any here, I mean just take a look at the Yaujta here, half of them are ready to pounce on the humans and I don’t think their looking for a fight, well not the bad kind any way if you know what I mean?” Jack said with a wink, the queen smiled broadly as she sensed nothing but open honesty from the powerful human,   
“But that being said it is a two-way street remember” Jack continued and this caused to look at him with confusion,   
“What do you mean God slayer?” she asked,   
“The one you chose must also choose you, the human heart is a mysterious and deep place and I cannot nor will not force someone to become your mate against their will and I expect the same respect from you, no one must be forced into it, it must be a mutual choice for the both of you, understand?” Jack said with a serious tone, the queen nodded with a smile on her lips,   
“Of course we understand God slayer, love is not love if it isn’t consensual and we would never dream of stripping our chosen male’s choice from him, we want him to choose to be with us of his own free will that we may experience the pleasure and joy of his love in its entirety, we are tired of being objects of fear and loathing, all we wish is to live peacefully within your ranks with all of you at our sides, and to find the one that we can share our entire selves with, the one that we can show a true and pure happiness” she replied with a little embarrassment at that last part, Jack smile instantly returned,   
“Then I wish you luck on your endeavours and wish you a happy hunt, may they be fruitful and may you find the one that makes you happy every second of the day and night” Jack said, this caused the queen to smile broadly before briefly embarrassing Jack, then she turned to her sisters and told them that they were excepted and were free to seek love from among their ranks, the other two nearly did a little dance of joy, then all three joined the group and stood shoulder to shoulder with their new family, well so to speak given their size it was more like shoulder to hip.  
Jack smiled at this, he felt that life was gonna get real interesting on his home world very soon with all these love hungry aliens running around, he found himself hoping that they were going to have enough open minded humans to go around, in the case of the three queens it was going to have to be very open minded.  
Turning back to the gathered humans he saw them discussing their options, there were a few arguments but Jack could hear logic and reasoning being used a lot here, but finally Millar, Angel and Monty stepped forwards from the ranks, “While I’d love to go back to Earth I don’t think it’d be much of a home anymore, I’d sit there every day thinking of what is out here and knowing that I’d never know and I hate what if’s” Angel said in a soft voice as she said the last part she kinda glanced for the briefest second at the Yaujta male in crimson armour who was stood in the middle of Jack’s group looking right at her,  
“I agree, no-one there will understand what we’ve been through or what happened to us, there’s not a lot back there for us anymore laddie” Monty said,   
“What we’re trying to say is that we choose door number two boss” Millar said, from high above them a voice called down,   
“We choose door two too!!!” Amy yelled from high on the queen’s shoulder, Boo meowed his agreement, Jack and a few of his group laughed at her enthusiasm, then he turned and walked down to Millar and extended him a hand, instantly taking it and shaking it vigorously Millar smiled, “Tell you what boss it feel damn good not to be hunted anymore” Millar said with a grin, Jack returned his smile,   
“Oh be under no illusions Millar you are still being hunted” Jack said, Millar’s face dropped into a frown,   
“What?” he said sounding anxious, Jack’s smile widened even more,   
Just this time it’s a very different type of hunting” he said flicking his head over his shoulder indicating something behind him, Millar’s eyes flicked up to the gathered group behind Jack and instantly noticed at least three of the Yaujta females appeared to be looking at him with what appeared to be doe eyes, suddenly the whole Yaujta cupid thing clicked into place in his mind,   
“Oh, OHHHH I get you now” he said with a nervous smile at his old friend, then he leaned in close and whispered in his ear,   
“Any suggestions boss?” he asked, Jack smiled slyly,   
“Yeah, brace yourself” he said.  
The now united group was over a hundred strong, they Yaujta and the queens greeted their new human clan mates enthusiastically as they joined group, Jack smiled at this as he saw the joy of cultural exchanges already taking shape as the three species learned how to greet each other properly, “Alright everyone grab what you need from the huts and we’ll head out” Jack yelled above the noise which seemed to be primarily made up of laughter and joy, the humans nodded and broke up to head to the huts to retrieve any belongings they wanted to take with them, Sela eleth helped her beloved Robert back to his hut to retrieve his drawings and his kit, while Amy and boo got a free ride there on the shoulder of their new kiande amedha protector, Jack spotted various Yaujta breaking off from the group in pursuit of various humans in order to offer their help to them, he even watched one of the kiande amedha queens following Cortez in the direction of his hut, he glanced at Tik who was also watching this little display, “And so it begins” he said with a grin at the side of her face, she glanced at him and then back at the group,  
“And it’s all thanks to you my love” she said, Jack glanced at her again with a confused look in his face,   
“And how did you work that out my love? If anyone was to do with all the Yaujta being here t was our beloved Ryan” he said, Tik shook her head then she turned to him and gently took his face in her hands,   
“True but also not my love, you started this all those years ago when you broke your chains and declared your love for me, if you had not taken that first step then I don’t think I would have been strong enough to have broken my chains and to have declared my love for you, this beautiful love that we share for one another would have been nothing more than a fantasy for me, but it is my reality and I could not be happier, but it was your strength that gave rise to this, that first step you took all those years ago brought about all this now as others see our example and break free of their own chains and want to seek true love for themselves, without fear of oppression or worse, and it was you that gave them that chance to be truly happy” she said in a low but emotion filled voice, suddenly she felt Jack’s hands on the sides of her face and he tenderly kissed her inner mouth,   
“And if I had never met you then I wouldn’t have wanted to break my chains, if I’d have never met you then I wouldn’t have ever realised that someone from an entirely different race was the true holder of my heart, I’d have lived my life never realising why there always felt like there was a Yaujta shaped hole in my soul, so if anything we did it together, each on their own is strong, but together we’re unstoppable” he said with a smile as they broke from their loving kiss, then they embraced each other tightly and looked once again at the human group scurrying around collecting their belongings with their various alien admirers in tow below them,   
“And now we have given the chance to be unstoppable to so many others” Jack said,   
“Not to mention happy and complete” Tik replied, then they shared another tender kiss and when they broke she leaned in close and whispered in his ear,  
“Speaking of feeling complete I wish they’d hurry up, you have a promise to honour in our quarters my love” she said with in a soft purring whisper, he smiled softly,  
“You should know by now that I always keep my promises, especially to you my heart” he replied and her smile widened as her purring intensified.  
After everyone was done collecting everything the group made their way out of the cave and onto the surface, for many of the humans this was a feeling that they’d almost forgotten as many had been in that cave for a rather long time, the feeling of sunlight on their skins was amazing and Jack was overwhelmed by the massive collection of happiness and joy all around him as they walked out into the jungle, though he did have a little chuckle as he looked over the group and he saw many of the already budding pairings already emerging, he had to give it to the Yaujta they really didn’t mess about with matters of the heart, Tik noticed him smiling at this and decided to explain, “They have been so oppressed for so long that these feelings have been like a bomb waiting to blow and now that they have been given this freedom, they have seized this opportunity with both hands and they are going to be damned if they ever let go” she said, Jack’s smiled broadly,   
“It’s such a beautiful thing to see all this budding love staring to burn all around us and it’s also so wonderful to see that the oomans are beginning to awaken to their potential here as well” he said as he noticed more than a few shy eyed glances being given in the direction of their alien suitors, as he observed their group he noticed two things one of which nearly caused him to laugh out loud barely managing to stem it at the last second, Tik noticed it and she turned to look and instantly had to trim a laugh of her own, on one side they saw their beloved Sela eleth carrying her beloved Robert along bridal style due to his injuries and they were sharing such loving glances that it melted both of her parents hearts, but it wasn’t this that made them laugh, it was the fact that one of the queens had also noticed their daughter doing this and had decided to try it out for herself, so both of them were treated to the surreal sight of a rather confused Cortez being plucked off the ground and despite his protests being carried along bridal style by a rather amorous kiande amedha queen, a few of the group noticed this and unlike Jack and Tik were unable to trim their laughs, this only added to Cortez’s embarrassment at being carried along by the rather amorous queen, but they were soon trimmed when the queen shot them an angry glare, instantly the laughter fell silent and their eyes were averted, suddenly it was his turn to smile, maybe it wasn’t so bad having a protector like this around after all and suddenly he looked almost proud and happy to be carried along by the queen, who seemed rather joyed at her catch if the now rather large smile on her face was anything to go by, Jack turned to Tik, “Think he knows that she’s trying to win his affection and claim him?” he asked,  
“Well if he doesn’t he gonna be in for a very big surprise” Tik replied with a soft giggle,  
“I wonder if he’ll be happy being a king? King Cortez actually has kinda a nice ring to it” Jack said with a soft smile.  
“Yeah it kinda does doesn’t it?” Tik said smiling herself as she watched the queen strolling along happily carrying her human catch who was now smiling all over his face.   
It didn’t take too long for the whole group to reach where the ship or now as it was ships were parked, Jack looked at Tik questioningly as he saw the three new shiny corvette class ships parked next to theirs, she just shrugged, “We figured than try and cram every one into one ship we should get some more and besides I think the clan owed us that much for what they put us all through” she said, Jack simply nodded and turned to the group, he began dividing them into groups to be added to each ship, he was being careful while making his selections, he was trying to spot any obvious connections between pairs so not to separate them and put them into different ships, he felt this would be especially important to helping the budding bonds along as he knew none of the humans would have experienced space travel before and it would be kinda scary for them, so placing them with their potential suitor would not only help stem their fears but it would help strengthen their budding bonds as the suitor would step in and attempt to help quell their fears, some were kinda obvious like the kiande amedha queen and Cortez who she’d finally put down on the ground again but he’d chosen to stay by her side instead of re-joining the humans, which spoke volumes to Jack.  
Others were much subtler and hard to spot, like Millar and h’chak, but as he was observing the group he noticed them sharing shy glances at each other through the crowd and decided it was time to strap on those Yaujta cupid wings and pull out his bow.  
It took a little while but finally they were all assigned to a ship and each ship had a pilot, the loading didn’t take very long as everyone was eager to get underway and to get away from this place, aboard his own ship with his beloved family and the others assigned to their ship he walked the deck where all the stasis pods were assigned, he watched the Yaujta helping the humans to get into their assigned pods. Being too big to fit into a pod the queen that was assigned to his ship had decided to remain in the bay and to protect the pods, she was now curled up at the end of the deck watching as everyone was loaded into their pods, it had taken a little convincing but she’d allowed Ryan and Sela eleth to take Amy from her and to load her into a pod with her beloved warrior cat Boo at her side, out of respect for the queen’s protective feelings they’d put her into the pod closest to her at the end of the bay, this had caused the queen to coil herself protectively around the pod while she watched over all the others.  
Sela eleth had quelled Robert’s fears as she’d helped him get into his pod, she really wished that the pods were made for two because she’d have joined him in there in a heartbeat.   
Finally, it was done and everyone was loaded into their sleep pods and were soundly in hyper sleep, now the only two left awake were Jack and Tik eleth. Tik set the coordinates of their home world into the nav computer and then broadcast it to the other three ships before take-off, then she watched as in perfect unison all four ships launched themselves into the brilliant blue sky before it gave way to the empty black void of space, all four ships quickly formed up into a formation with Tik’s ship at the lead and the others following behind in a wing shape, at that point she knew that the pilots would be finalising their autopilot commands before retiring to their own sleep pods, normally she’d have been doing the same, but with a sly glance at her beloved male who was in the gunner’s seat, she had other plans and a promise to receive.  
The two of them were barely through the door to their quarters before they were tearing each other’s armour off, they were doing it blind as they were locked together in a passionate tongue war as Tik’s mandibles held Jack’s face to her mouth in a tight grip, there was no way she was letting him go, her whole body ached for the feel of her male that she’d been denied for too long, as soon as their armour was off she felt the wondrous sensations of his fingers gliding over her skin seeking her most sensitive spots, as she felt tone of his fingers slide in between her very swollen outer lips she let out a soft growl of passion, she needed no stimulation this night as she was more than ready for her beautiful male as he swiftly found out when she threw him on to the bed and pounced on him, but much to her delight her beloved Ack was not giving up without a fight this night, he span her over and pressed down on her stealing a kiss from her mouth as he did, she roared in joy and defiance and fought back spinning him over using his weight as a counter balance to throw him on to his back again, now it was her turn to straddle him and to steal a kiss, but as she parted from him he pulled something she’d never seen him do before, he literally pushed her backwards with amazing strength before following her into a roll, the force while it didn’t hurt her it certainly surprised her, she’d almost forgotten just how strong her beloved was when he deployed his Dream Warrior strength, as she flipped out of the roll she found herself on her hands and knees searching for the now disappeared Jack, then suddenly she felt a pair hands smack her bare bum before travelling the entire length of her body and gripping her breasts and tweaking her proudly erect teats, she roared in both surprise and pleasure, she reared up backwards before feeling her male’s chest and body against her back, he gently bit down on her neck and shoulder while sucking at the area’s his teeth made contact with causing Tik to let out a gasp of pure pleasure, suddenly there was no more fight in her, her whole body begged her to surrender herself to him and she was not going to argue with it, “Take me my love, I beg of you” she said sounding rather breathless and very needy, Jack growled softly in her ear which sent a shiver of purest pleasure down her spine,   
“Thought you’d never ask my love” he said with a soft growl, suddenly she felt him seize her hips with his hands and quickly she lowered herself down onto her forearms so that her rear was presented fully to him, then her mind was filled with a strange fuzzy feeling that it took her a second to recognise, in fact it was only when she saw her eyes in the mirror that she realised what he was doing, she had one bright purple eye and one brilliant blue one and as she saw his face she saw he had the same, then before her passion addled brain had time to realise what this meant she felt Jack’s malehood begin to spread her burning, needy, dripping and very swollen lower lips and begin to slide inch by delicious inch towards her molten core, that she could also feel what it felt like to be inside her and without any reservations she let loose a mighty roar of ecstasy as she felt him within her and felt what it felt like to be within her at the same time.  
Their moans and roars of pleasure and wet slaps of their flesh meeting over and over filled their quarters, Jack’s hands gripped Tik’s hips and firm buttocks as he drove himself over and over into the hot tightness of the woman he adored over and over again, he could feel every ridge and every bump of her beautifully tight womanhood as his manhood drove to its entirety inside her kissing the neck of her womb like a pair of very loving lips, he could also feel every one of her internal muscles trying their best to hold onto him and to draw him ever deeper into her with every stroke, but what neither of them knew is right at that every moment their pure loving passion was being observed by three very curious and now rather enthralled observers, the queen who had been in the sleeping bay had heard the noises traveling through ship and had gone to investigate, the corridors although large enough for Yaujta to wander freely were a bit of a squeeze for one as large as her, but soon she’d tracked down the source of the odd noises as she’d stumbled on an open door, now she stood hidden in the blackest shadows as she watched the God slayer mating with his beloved female, she was enthralled by the beautifully intimate act they were committing together, using her telepathic bond with her sisters she’d begun to share what she was seeing with them as well, now all three watched in total rapture as both the God slayer and his female huntress roared so loudly as what must have been a highly pleasurable and extremely intense mutual climax tore through their bodies before they collapsed onto of one another in a sweaty heap.  
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Silently the queen made her way back to the sleeping deck and resumed her vigil over the pods, but now she felt something that she had never felt in her life before and she knew her sisters were feeling the exact same thing, she felt arousal for the first time, “So that’s what this human love and passion looks like” one of her sisters said telepathically,   
“No wonder that huntress chose him to be her mate, that looked like it felt wondrous for both of them” her other sister said,   
“I agree and you could feel the intensity of the love they held for one another even without being linked to either of them and oh that passion looked completely overwhelming” our queen said, both the others agreed,   
“We need to secure human males for ourselves before the hunters steal them all away” the second queen said,   
“Speak for yourselves, I’m already working on mine, I found the most beautiful male I have ever seen in my life and he seems rather curious and receptive of my advances so far” the third queen said, this was the one that had been carrying Cortez bridal style through the jungle,  
“Best move cautiously sister, you wouldn’t want to frighten him off and I would hate to see you fail because he did seem like quite a nice specimen of their species by the looks of envy you were getting from a few of the huntresses” our queen said, the third queen gave a little laugh,   
“You saw those as well? Well I have no intention of losing him to them, I’ll make him mine if have to move a mountain to woo him then I’ll do it, pebble by pebble if I have to, in fact I’ll do anything I have to if it get him to show me the love and passion that the God slayer shows his huntress, I really need to feel like that” she said with a voice filled with obvious passion, both her other sisters instantly felt happy for her, it was good to see her getting off to such a quick start,  
“Well I have my eye on one now all I have to do is get him to notice me over those huntresses” the second queen said suddenly, this surprised our queen as she hadn’t noticed her sister paying attention to anyone in particular,   
“I did not see you approach anyone my sister?” our queen said,   
“That’s because I did not want to approach him outright and possibly scare him off, he’s rather nervous looking but I sensed a deep rooted intelligence in him and I have to admit that he looks rather fetching, I rather like the slightly yellow tint of his white skin and he looks like he’s not the combat type, more of the thinker and builder type, I think he’d be a good one to build my hive with at my side” she said, this left our queen feeling both happy and sad at the same time, it appeared of her sisters she was the only one without her eye on any of the humans, both her sisters sensed her sadness,   
“Do not fear my sister, I am sure that there will be a human to show you the love that we all crave among them” the third queen said, our queen just sighed, she hoped that she was right as having now witnessed the beautiful, wondrous joy of human love and passion she desperately wanted to taste of that forbidden fruit.  
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The rest of the flight was uneventful, after their night of passion together Jack and Tik had placed themselves into hyper sleep for the rest of the journey, the three queens were able to place themselves into a form of self-induced hibernation but not before checking over their charges, or indeed their chosen ones.  
The ship’s computers woke everyone up before they made planet fall, Tik’s ship took the lead for the decent with the other three ships following them down to the landing area near Jack and Tik’s house, fortunately the clearing that Jack and Tik used to keep their ship was easily large enough for the four ships to land, as she powered down the ships engines and cores Tik glanced at her beloved male who was sat in the Captain’s seat but now surrounded by the rest of their family as well, with Sela sat in the co-pilot’s seat, Robert was next to her at the engineering console, on the other side was Ryan sat in the gunner’s seat with Shena next to him in the second gunner’s seat, “We’re finally home” Jack said,   
“Yes my beloved and what’s more, we’re all back together the way we belong” Tik said,   
“More than that, we have new additions” Jack said glancing both to his left and right at his son and daughter and their respective chosen partners, Tik smiled broadly,   
“A true time for rejoicing and joy, not to mention for true heart claims to be made” she said glancing at both of her cubs with a raised brow,   
“And made they will be” both Ryan and Sela said in perfect unison causing both of their parents to smile broadly, it was truly a time for perfect joy.  
As the large group of humans, Yaujta and kiande amedha strolled groggily down the exit ramps to their ships, they each took a look around at the huge forest they now found themselves in, “Welcome everyone to your new home, the home world of Clan Mason” Jack said as he swung his arms around to show off the place they now found themselves in, “Your new lives begin here and now, so it’s time to pick yourselves out a plot and make something that’s truly yours” he said, suddenly the realisations all set in at once among the group, they had done it, they had achieved true freedom now, freedom from oppression of love and choice, freedom from being hunted like prey and sport for sick amusement, freedom from being the object of fear and nightmares, it was theirs and no one was going to take it from them again, as they all looked around this free world the group as a whole broke down and tears were shed and hugs of joy and pure unity were shared between all species.  
The next few days went like a blur, everyone picked out a plot of land that they’d like to build their own dream home on, once their staked their claim Jack and Tik would go out and mark the boundaries of the property for them, they made sure that each and every one was exactly the same size as their own to avoid any arguments, while they had nowhere to sleep at the moment, so everyone slept on the ships for the time being, but each of them shared huge joint meals together at Jack and Tik’s house to promote a sense of security, unity and above all family, they were all one big clan now and Jack wanted to make sure they all felt it, so each and every one of them had a place at his table which he constructed himself outside.  
Amy and Boo were officially adopted by Tik and Jack in front of everyone and both moved into their home, Jack loved watching Tik fussing over Amy in full on momma Tik mode, one of his favourites was when he came in one night and found Tik asleep with Amy on her chest and Boo in her Dreadlocks, it was such a beautiful sight to see the big huntress caring for the young human girl with such tenderness that you could easily see that it came to her so naturally.  
It was at one of the large joint meals that both Ryan and Sela eleth made their heart claims to Shena Mason and to Robert and much to their joy had them reciprocated in front of their entire clan, both Jack and Tik as the clan’s Patriarch and Matriarch blessed the unions and both couples shared their first public kisses in front of the entire clan, to say they were nervous was an understatement, but neither of them had ever been so determined either, to their shared delight Jack had promised to build them both houses on his property so that they would have somewhere to call their own and for them to have somewhere to have the privacy to indulge their love and to let it bloom and grow, the whole time Tik was praying for grand cubs to spoil and to teach the ways of the hunters.  
Yoshi Namboku found his services to be in great demand suddenly as he was put in charge of planning out each and every one of the houses, but he relished the challenge and he felt that the task would be accomplished much easier now that he seemed to have a rather friendly queen following him around all the time, truth be told that while he’d been terrified of her at first, he was now rather beginning to enjoy if not relish her company, she was like no female he had ever met in his life, she was immensely powerful and fierce but with him she showed him nothing but soft care and attention and for some reason he couldn’t quite put his finger on he seemed to share quite a strong bond with her, to the point that when she wasn’t around or was off hunting he began to feel like a part of him was missing, as it happened it didn’t take him long to figure out what the strange feeling that was blooming in his heart was, love raw and pure, but while he got the shock of his life when he figured out what it was he got an even bigger shock when the queen decided to take a massive leap of faith and to touch him and show him her feelings telepathically, both were overjoyed to find out that they were perfectly in sync.  
But they weren’t they only blooming couple, as the days marched on and while the village started to grow around them so did the love, very quickly pretty much everyone had paired off, to be fair and much to Jack and Tik’s amusement there wasn’t a single same species couple among the entire group, as it turned out that if you took the human children out of the equation that there was exactly the right amount of humans to pair them off with either a Yaujta or a queen, to that end all three of the queens had got their deepest wishes and had found themselves a very open minded human male each, one was with Yoshi Namboku, another had claimed Cortez and also been claimed by him and the last one who had been aboard Jack’s ship on the way here had found herself on the receiving end of some very welcome attention from a young Irish man from among the human soldiers.  
All the others had managed to pair themselves off with Yaujta, even Angel had managed to get past her prejudices and her fear and had decided to get closer to the young warrior she’d seen in the crimson amour, as it turned out he had been looking at her that day in the cave.  
Millar got his wish of finding a big beautiful Yaujta woman in the form of the gentlest one of the lot, h’chak. He found himself sat next to her at nearly every joint meal and the two found themselves talking at length about their lives, he found himself playing counselor to her as he got her to open up about the horrors that Loki had inflicted on her, although her already knew of them through her memories he still listened intently to her as she unloaded her feelings because he knew that it was helping her and he found himself becoming very fond of the gentle Yaujta, before long the inevitable happened and they both gave in to their growing bond.  
As the village grew soon so did the love and much to Jack and Tik’s delight, they found themselves having to bless a new heart claim nearly every night at the group meals, under Yoshi’s leadership and with his new love at his side who he’d name Citrus after his favorite flavor, but we won’t get into how he decided that was the perfect name for her but it was safe to say that both species found that they were so much more compatible than even they’d dared to dream. The village sprung up at an amazing rate, he formed the clan into teams based on their specialties and skills, whether that be resource procurement, construction or zone clearing which his love happened to specialize in what with her ability to slice down the huge trees with that tail of hers in but a few swings, he always found himself marveling at her immense power while always being on the receiving end of her utmost gentleness himself.  
In but a few short weeks the place had really taken shape, with all of the dwellings complete Yoshi had turned his attention to planning other things like defenses and schools, which as it happened they were going to need the latter much sooner than they thought as Tik eleth had got her wish when she found out that her beloved Sela was carrying Roberts cubs.  
Jack was never gonna forget the day that Sela broke the news to her mother, he’d been out in the garden working on his forge, but this time instead of weapons he was forging a set of railings for someone’s vegetable garden, he’d heard what sounded like a death screech so loud that he’d been half way to grabbing his weapons and charging in when the back door burst open and a very exited Tik had picked him from the ground and swung him round like a child, all the time screaming “We’re going to be grandparents my Ack!!!!”.  
During this time Ryan also approached his father and the two discussed what they’d learned from Paya about the creeping black that Loki had unleashed on the universe, the whole family and clan discussed what they were going to do about it as none of them still truly knew what it was.   
Jack’s plan was a simple one, once their village was fully built and secured and they had the ability to defend themselves from any and all threats, he would then start sending members of the clan to approach the various other clans and see if they could try and convince other like minded individuals to join their cause, according to both Tik and Shena they were sure that they’d be able to convince quite a few Yaujta females to join the cause and more than possibly a few males too.   
Meanwhile he and a few of the other humans would take a few trips to Earth and see if they could find any other humans to help populate their ranks, if there was going to be a stream of love hungry Yaujta females clambering to join their ranks they were going to need an equal amount of love hungry human males and females willing to to open their minds and take a walk on the wild side to make those numbers up, especially as Ryan informed his father it would be the hybrids that were the ones who fought what was to come while being led by the Dream Warriors.   
Jack’s heart was heavy at all this as he knew that no matter how hard they’d already fought, there was still fighting and bloodshed to come, but as his beloved Tik eleth placed a knowing hand on his shoulder his nerves steeled, “Then if it’s a fight the trickster god wanted then it’s a fight we’ll give him, if it falls on Clan Mason to pull the universe’s collective arse out of the fire, so be it, we’ll take this burden and we’ll carry it with pride, I hear by announce the creation and training of the Guardian core, these will be warriors trained in both the very best of human and Yaujta hunting and combat techniques, they will be specialist in everything from sniping to extreme stealth, able to operate independently of the clan or with its full support, they will be tasked with hunting down and eliminating any source of this evil that they find while at the same time spreading the word to the other Yaujta and human clans that there is another way and if they’re unhappy with the way their lives are that there’s another one waiting for them if their brave enough to try and grab it, we’ll prove to the universe and the pauking trickster god that we are stronger together” he announced to his entire clan, this was met with applause as everyone here now felt like their lives were complete, instantly pretty much every one of the human soldiers and Yaujta warriors among their ranks volunteered for the newly formed Guardian core, for the first time in their lives their hearts and souls were whole and no one and nothing was ever going to take this from them ever again, this time they were going to fight for everyone and everything they held dear and this was not a fight that they intended to lose.  
Tik and Jack grinned at each other, with dedication like this they were going to have their work cut out for them, they were going to stand against the very universe itself, but they were going to do it willingly, for if not them then who?  
But with the aid of their wonderful children and of everyone here, they were determined to make this work, they were going to hunt this creeping black down and they were going to win and they were going to do it together as one.

The End?


End file.
